Conestoga news

April 7, 2005 12:43 PM

Conestoga Again Achieves #1 Overall Rating

For the seventh straight year, composite results from the independent Key Performance Indicator (KPI) surveys show that Conestoga College is the overall #1 rated public college in Ontario.

Two outside professional research firms conduct the KPI surveys annually for the province’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Four independently administered surveys measure graduate employment, graduate satisfaction, employer satisfaction and student satisfaction. Taking the composite score of the four surveys (the graduate employment rate, plus the responses of "very satisfied” and "satisfied” from the three satisfaction surveys), Conestoga emerges with an overall average of 88.9, best among the 21 colleges of applied arts and technology and the three institutes of technology and advanced learning.

Furthermore, Conestoga’s performance on the graduate employment survey (93.8 graduate employment success by 2003-04 graduates six months after graduation) is the best of any Ontario public college or institute measured. This marks the second time in three years that Conestoga has been tops in this important measure.

Recently, the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) posted college student loan default rates for 2004. Here again, Conestoga’s effectiveness was evident -- at 10.4 per cent, Conestoga’s result was the lowest default rate of any Ontario public college or institute.

"The excellence of Conestoga’s performance on these surveys is remarkable,” says Conestoga President John Tibbits. "Our attention to quality as an institution emerges from these results, which indicate our commitment to ensuring that a Conestoga education has relevance and value. Our employees carry forth this commitment, and we believe in the importance of working in partnership with our student association representatives. These results will encourage us to continue to find ways to improve our quality even more, as we fulfill our mandate to contribute in major ways to community economic growth and prosperity.*

A composite KPI survey reference chart is attached.