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.