FAQ - Longitudinal Survey of Low-Income Students
What is the MESA Project?
The Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid Project (the "MESA" Project) , is a research effort being conducted through the Canadian Education Project and the School for Policy Studies at Queen's University on behalf of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. It was designed to focus on low-income students in post-secondary education and answer the following four questions:
- After graduating from high school, teenagers coming from low-income backgrounds face a choice as to attend college or university, or not. For those who did attend, how do they compare to those who did not?
- Does providing more funding in a student's first few years of further education attract more low-income students to post-secondary education?
- Does providing more funding in a student's first few years of further education make it more likely for low-income students to stay in and graduate?
- Are low-income students different across Canada?
MESA is a unique project in post-secondary education in Canada through its focus on generating a body of new high-quality empirical research using a range of approaches with the explicit purpose of shedding new light on policy issues related to access to and persistence in PSE and to communicating its findings to the broader research and policy community in an accessible format.
Aspects of this research include collecting administrative data from different provinces and conducting a research survey of randomly-selected student financial aid recipients and non-recipients from across Canada. In addition, the project has solicited research from some leading experts in the field.
Why was I selected to participate in the MESA survey?
The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, working with all ten provincial governments, provided the Canadian Education Project with data on a pool of roughly 50,000 individual student aid recipients and non-recipients in accordance with applicable provincial privacy laws. CEP then created a random sample of students for inclusion in a telephone survey. Roughly 15,000 students were contacted and slightly more than 12,000 participated in the study between January and April, 2007. Between January and May 2008, a follow up survey was conducted, and the final survey is being conducted between January and March 2009.
Once contacted, these students’ identities were protected, and all personal identifiers are removed. Their identities remain protected under strict privacy measures undertaken by CEP and the Foundation.
Can I decline to participate in the study? Will it affect my student assistance? Will any of the data be used to check up on my student assistance file?
Students are under no obligation to participate in the survey. Deciding not to participate will have no effect on an individual’s student aid now or in the future.
However, prospective participants are highly encouraged to take part in the survey. Participation assists future generations of students by making governments and policymakers more fully aware of the unique pressures, choices and situations currently faced by post-secondary education students.
Are there any incentives for participants?
This year CEP and the Foundation are offering incentives, including one grand prize draw for $1,000 cash or 15 chances at $500 cash, to participants in the survey.
At the end of the survey, I was asked to give permission to link my answers to my student aid file. What does it mean if I give such permission?
In order to better understand the dynamics of access to post-secondary education, CEP and the Foundation have worked with provincial governments to obtain administrative data on about 50,000 student borrowers across the country. These data contain some of the information provided to your provincial government when you applied for your student loan, most notably with respect to family income and your own loan and grant package. It is from these files that CEP selects the roughly 15,000 students from across the country to invite into the survey.
At the end of the survey, each student is asked for permission to link the file containing their answers to the telephone survey with the data from their student aid file. If you consent to the link, then CEP will create a single merged research file that combines both your student loan data file and the answers you gave to our survey. We ask for this because such merged files represent the most powerful and reliable way to examine issues related to student assistance, access and persistence and provide researchers with much more information that either the survey or the administrative data on its own. It is important to note that personal information that could be used to identify you is removed from the linked file.
The way CEP links the file is as follows: both your survey answers file and your student data file have Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) (e.g. XYZ-98765) that were randomly assigned by CEP, and that do not at all relate to your confidential SIN (Social Insurance Number) or any other student numbers. If you agree to a linkage, your PIN is then used to link these files. Once the two files are linked, any data that could permit anyone to link your answers or your data to you personally (such as your name, phone number or address) are destroyed. That way, someone using the file for research purposes might know that student XYZ-98765 had (for example) a $6,000 loan or got A’s in school, but they will not know that this person is you. The security of your personal information is of the highest concern to us.
What happens if I do not consent to a link?
CEP will use your answers to the telephone survey in its analysis of survey data but will not perform the link; your file will be excluded from all analysis of joined survey-administrative data files. Whether or not you consent to a link, your personal information is protected.
What happens if I consent to a link, but then later change my mind?
You always have the right to change your mind. If you ever change your mind and want us to reverse the link, we will do so. Please contact rdunn@educationalpolicy.org at CEP in order to do so.
How does CEP protect my private information?
This project involves the handling of a significant amount of personal data. CEP, which handles the overall management and coordination of the project, holds all the data. We keep all the data in encrypted files on a stand-alone, biometrically-protected computer.
Academica Group – the company performing the survey interviews – receives just enough data from CEP to contact student participants. Once they complete the surveys, the records are returned to CEP for linkage under secure conditions, and all personal contact data are subsequently destroyed.
CEP then creates a research file from the linked file. It is this file that is made available to researchers, including its own employees. The research file contains data from the administrative file, as well as data from the survey file but excludes all personal data.
Who will be examining the data in detail?
As noted above, survey data work is handled by the Academica Group of London, Ontario.
Overall project management is handled by CEP, under the direction of its Vice-President and Director (Canada), Mr. Alex Usher.
CEP is responsible for providing top-line (i.e. basic) data on administrative and survey file results for the project while other researchers will conduct more in-depth analysis of the information.
Major empirical research on the linked files will be done by researchers from across the country who, on the basis of research proposals they submit, are selected competitively on the basis of peer-review. The work of these researchers is co-ordinated by the project’s Research Director, Dr. Ross Finnie. The peer-review process is handled by a research review committee chaired by Dr. Arthur Sweetman, Director of the Queen’s University School of Policy Studies.
Who can I contact if my query has not been answered here?
If your question relates to the administration of the survey, please contact Academica Group at 1-866-922-8636, ext. 300 or www.academicagroup.com.
If your question relates to the overall project, its nature, goals, research methods, etc., or if your question relates to issues of privacy or confidentiality, please contact CEP’s Ryan Dunn at 1-416-848-0215, ext. 229 or rdunn@educationalpolicy.org .
Please note that any queries regarding the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's aid programmes (awarding, disbursement, dates, and so forth) should be directed to the Foundation itself. They can be reached from their website, at millennium.foundation@bm-ms.org or at 1-877-786-3999.
