Lakehead University joined the Ministry of Education and Training and the Council of Ontario Universities in a project to make information available regarding student's graduation rates, graduate employment rates, and OSAP loan default rates.

 1990 Cohort Graduation Rate  70.2%

The Ministry of Education and Training calculated graduation rates by selecting all full-time, year one undergraduate students from Fall 1990 who were seeking either a bachelors or first professional degree and determining whether or not they graduated within 7 years.  The subset was matched against the records for students who received a degree from the same institution during the period 1991-97.  The graduation rate for Lakehead University is 70.2%, which compares favourably to 70.8% for all programs at all Ontario universities.

It should be noted that students who transferred to another institution, for example to pursue a program that Lakehead does not offer such as medicine or dentistry, are not counted as a graduate in Lakehead's rate.  In addition, 9.4% of the students in the survey changed from full-time to part-time status and are still enrolled in their degree programs at Lakehead University.

1996 Graduates Employment Rate 97.1%

To determine employment rates of recent graduates, Ontario universities conducted a survey of all 1996 graduates of undergraduate degree programs.  Graduates were asked about their employment situation six months and two years after graduation.  Between December 19, 1998 and January 12, 1999, a total of 52,175 surveys were mailed out to these graduates.  Follow-up phone calls were later conducted by institutions between mid-March and April 4, 1999.  An overall response rate of 54% was achieved provincially for the 1998-99 survey.  Lakehead's response rate was 53.2%.

Lakehead University's employment rates for 1996 graduates were found to be 87.0% six months after graduation and 97.1% two years after graduation.  This compares favourably with the provincial rates of 90.8% and 96.7%.   The employment rate is defined as the number of employed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force where the labour force is those persons who were employed, or unemployed but looking for work.

1998 OSAP Loan Default Rate  11.5%

The 1998 default rates reflect the repayment status of both undergraduate and graduate students who received Ontario Student Loans in the 1995-96 academic year and did not receive an Ontario Student Loan in 1996-97, and who subsequently defaulted on their repayment obligations approximately two years after graduation.   For the purpose of calculating default rates, student loan recipients/defaulters are assigned to the last institution/program they attended in 1995-96.  The status of these loans was assessed as of July 1998 or about two years after entering into repayment.

An Ontario Student Loan is in default when the Ontario government has paid the bank's claim for an inactive loan.  A loan is inactive when no payments were made by the student for at least 90 days.  Responsibility for recovery of defaulted accounts was transferred to private collection agencies in January 1999.

Lakehead University's 1998 default rate for all programs is 11.5%, slightly lower than 12.3% for all programs at Ontario universities.

For more information:

Kerrie-Lee Clarke, Director of Institutional Analysis
807-343-8339

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