Frequently Asked Questions
Students
How many undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled at SFU?
You can find the enrolment numbers (headcounts) and AFTEs for each term here, including breakdowns by a number of variables (e.g. faculty, visa status, etc.): https://www.sfu.ca/irp/enrolments/enrolment-dashboard.html
On average, how many terms do students take to complete a degree at SFU?
We have this data by department, faculty, and for SFU overall in the "Tables" documents here: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/departments.html
SFU faculty and staff can access our Undergraduate Retention and Performance Portal with more detailed information about undergraduate students here: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/portal/retention.html
Courses
How many students are registered in a particular course?
You can find a history of official end-of-week-3 course enrolments for each term and course on the "COURSE ENROLMENT" tab at: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/portal/enrolment.html
How quickly do courses fill up during the course registration period?
You can find daily course enrolment statistics from start of registration to end of week 1 of classes for each undergraduate course section at: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/courses/CourseSectionAvailabilityReport.html
Alumni
What are SFU alumni doing after graduation?
The Baccalaureate Graduates Survey (BGS) contains this data for people who have completed an undergraduate degree. You can find more information about the survey and results here: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/surveys/bgs.html
The Graduate Student Exit Survey has this data for people who have completed a graduate degree from SFU. You can find the survey results here: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/surveys/graduate-student-exit-survey.html
Faculty and Staff
How many faculty and staff work at SFU?
You can find faculty and staff headcounts here: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/faculty-staff.html
Other Post-Secondary Institutions
Where can I find institutional statistics for other BC universities?
You can find a list of institutional research office websites at other BC universities here: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/faq/list-of-IR-office-websites.html
Reporting Dates on the IRP Website
What do the numeric term codes mean?
The University's student information system uses numeric codes for terms. The first digit represents the century (e.g. "1" for the 21st century), the second and third digits represent the year, and the final digit represents the term season (1 = Spring, 4 = Summer, 7 = Fall). For example:
- 1227 = Fall 2022
- 1231 = Spring 2023
- 1234 = Summer 2023
When data are reported by year, what time period is this referring to?
Most of the statistics on the IRP website are reported by fiscal year rather than academic year.
The fiscal year consists of the Summer term, Intersession, Summer session, Fall term, and Spring term, in that order. So the 2022/23 fiscal year includes terms 1224, 1227, and 1231.
The academic year consists of the Fall term, Spring term, Summer term, Intersession, and Summer session, in that order. So the 2022/23 academic year includes terms 1227, 1231, and 1234.
Compliance Reporting
Where can I find NWCCU-specific reports?
Here are some data reports that SFU makes available to the NWCCU:
Common Data Set
Where can I find SFU's Common Data Set (CDS) submissions?
Multiple years of SFU's Common Data Set (CDS) submissions can be found here: https://www.sfu.ca/irp/faq/cdataset.html