Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on postsecondary students

Canadians are facing unprecedented challenges because of [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19, and students are no exception. Not only have their studies been disrupted, but many have lost jobs or job prospects, raising concerns about their financial circumstances and their academic future. From April 19 to May 1, 2020, over 100,000 postsecondary students participated in an online crowdsourcing data collection about how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting their academic, labour market and financial situation. This report documents the initial results from this questionnaire. Readers should note that, unlike other surveys conducted by Statistics Canada, crowdsourcing data are not collected under a design using probability-based sampling. As a result, the findings reported below cannot be applied to the overall postsecondary student population in Canada, but rather only to those who participated in the questionnaire. However, the results provide a snapshot of the experiences of participating students and, given the large number of participants, offer valuable insights.

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