Website will help students view wide variety of data
Samantha Ostrov, Staff Contributor
The Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU) have coordinated a way to make it easier for prospective students and their parents to decide where to go to school.
The AAU website now includes the Atlantic Common University Data Set (ACUD), which provides a list of information about AAU member universities (and one non-AAU member). The data “complements the extensive information which universities already make available through other published surveys as well as their own websites,” according to atlanticuniversities.ca.
The links direct users to each university website, where information on things like enrolment by program, university revenue and expenses, strategic plans, retention rates and even library collections are provided. Some also provide surveys indicating overall student satisfaction with their university experience.
The ACUD was introduced after a study released on Nov. 1 by Gardner Pinfold Consulting Economists for the AAU showed that the Atlantic universities make up a $2 billion industry. Indicators show “that collectively the sector is an important economic engine in the region and that each university is a vital economic anchor and contributor in their respective communities,” Michael Gardner, principal of Gardner Pinfold, told the AAU.
It’s unclear how much the data will affect students’ decision.
“Personally, I’m more likely to make my decision (to enroll) based on word-of-mouth than new statistics provided by universities,” says Adam Rafelman, who moved here in 2007 from Toronto to take the co-op commerce program at Dal. The most effective method of recruitment for him was attending an information session at his high school.
Rafelman does believe that some of the unique features like “enrollment of transfer students” and “transfer credit policies” could be highly useful for students concerned with those areas of enrollment. “It has merit, it just might not appeal to everyone,” he says.
Dalhousie President Tom Traves says in the 2010-2013 Strategic Focus plan that “we must focus steadily on answering the following question: ‘Why study at Dalhousie rather than any number of other universities?’”
Participating in the data set may serve to highlight how Dal compares to other school. Its ACUD page lists the number of instructional faculty members, including how many are women and the number that hold “highest level degrees.” It also includes how many students are registered for each degree program, academic averages in each program, and polls on the quality of student experience.
Third-year arts student Rebecca MacDonald believes that information in common data sets does have the ability to help with enrolment. “With such objective data, students can compare schools based on the criteria that matters most to them,” she says. She thinks that Dal will benefit from the ACUD “because its strengths will be presented to a large population of students, some of whom the school probably doesn’t reach with their recruiting strategies. There is also the ability for students to seek information on their own time.”
The ACUD may be one of many reactions to Maclean’s university ranking system established in 2006. The popularity of the survey prompted Canadian universities to argue for a greater role in the way that they are represented by theMaclean’s annual publication.
A ranking system like ACUD may also be better from a student’s point of view. “I do read Maclean’s University Guide,” says MacDonald, “but I find it is so brief that it hardly gives students any reason to choose one school over another.”
It is still too early to tell how significant the ACUD will be. Data provided is currently for the 2008-2009 year, and the AAU plans to have it updated annually.
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