Patterns of Education Financing and Debt: A Comparison of Two Cohorts of Canadian Post-Secondary Graduates

Abstract

Using data from 1988 and 1992 National Graduates Surveys (conducted by Statistics Canada), this paper explores educational financing and debt patterns for recent graduates of Canadian community college and university programs. A majority of recent post-secondary graduates borrowed to finance their education at some point during their educational programs through the Canada Student Loans Program and/or other sources. The more recent cohort of post-secondary graduates (1990 graduates interviewed in 1992) reported markedly higher debt loads and significantly greater amounts owing two years after graduation, relative to the earlier cohort (of 1986 graduates surveyed in 1988). Multiple regression models are developed and tested to predict the amount of debt (in dollars) owed by graduates approximately two years after completion of their programs. Key explanatory variables of (1) total amount borrowed, (2) university or community college program graduate, (3) number of months not employed between graduation and time of interview, (4) current job temporary or not, and (5) current employment income were all found to be highly significant for the most recent cohort of post-secondary graduates. However, there are important differences in multiple regression results between the two cohorts which are discussed in detail in the paper.