Lakehead University joined the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities 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.

 1991 Cohort Graduation Rate  

The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities calculated graduation rates by selecting all full-time, year one undergraduate students from Fall 1991 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 1992-98. 

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.  

The graduation rate calculated for Lakehead University is 73.3%, which compares favourably with the overall Ontario university system rate of 73.2%.  However, the mix of programs differs at each university.

In addition, 4.72% of the students have switched to part-time and continue or have since graduated.

1997 Graduates Employment Rate

To determine employment rates of recent graduates, Ontario universities conducted a survey of all 1997 graduates of undergraduate degree programs.  Graduates were asked about their employment situation six months and two years after graduation.  Between November 8, 1999 and December 20, 1999 a total of 50,194 surveys were mailed out to these graduates. Three reminder mailings were conducted from late December to early February 2000, for those who did not reply.  An overall response rate of 45% was achieved provincially for the 1999-00 survey.  Lakehead's response rate was 46.3%.

Lakehead University's employment rates for 1997 graduates were found to be 88.5% six months after graduation and 95.9% two years after graduation.  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.

1999 OSAP Loan Default Rate  

The 1999 default rates reflect the repayment status of both undergraduate and graduate students who received Ontario Student Loans in the 1996-97 academic year and did not receive an Ontario Student Loan in 1997-98, and who subsequently defaulted on their repayment obligations approximately two years after graduation.  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.

For the purpose of calculating default rates, student loan recipients/defaulters are assigned to the last institution/program they attended in 1996-97.  The status of these loans was assessed as of July 1999 or about two years after entering into repayment.  Lakehead University's 1999 default rate for all programs is 10.1%. 

For more information:

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

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