Student FAQs

Student Support Services
The Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey is an important tool for gathering information from postsecondary students about their experiences, general attitudes, and beliefs related to personal safety and sexual violence. The survey results will help you and your institution identify and address issues, improve services, build awareness, and update policies and processes related to addressing issues of sexual violence.
The survey will provide you, your institution, and the Ontario government with information about students’ perceptions and experiences of sexual violence. The survey includes questions on the following themes:
  • Knowledge of sexual violence supports, services and reporting procedures
  • Perceptions of consent
  • Experiences of sexual violence
  • Satisfaction with institutional responses to sexual violence
  • Behaviour of bystanders
The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act (MTCU Act) and the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005 (PCC Act) define sexual violence broadly as “any sexual act or act targeting a person’s sexuality, gender identity or gender expression, whether the act is physical or psychological in nature, that is committed, threatened or attempted against a person without the person’s consent, and includes sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, indecent exposure, voyeurism and sexual exploitation.” The definition draws on definitions previously used in Ontario and on language adopted by the United Nations and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ontario postsecondary students will be invited to participate in the online survey in Winter 2018. The survey will include full-time college, full-time university undergraduate and all graduate university and private career college students who are 18 years of age and older.
The survey will not include part-time public college, part-time university undergraduate students and students under the age of 18. Please note that some institutions are still working with their Research Ethics Boards and may not have approval for the survey at this time.
Part-time students are not included in this first launch of the survey due to the exceptional size of the project. In addition, given the differences between part-time and full-time students’ experiences on campus and their use of campus resources and supports it was likely significant changes would need to be made to the survey to reflect these differences.
While part-time students are not included in the 2018 administration of the survey, the ministry has heard interest from universities and others in the sector regarding inclusion of part-time students and this will be considered for future iterations of the survey.
When the survey becomes available, eligible postsecondary students will be sent an email inviting them to participate in the survey. The invitation will include a link to the survey landing page with more information about the survey. From the landing page you can access the survey directly.
Yes. You can complete the survey on a mobile device, such as a smartphone, as long as an internet browser is available on the device.
Each survey question will give you a set of responses to choose from. Sometimes you will be asked to select one response and at other times you will be asked to select all responses that apply. The survey does not ask for any written responses.
The survey is estimated to take an average of 15 to 20 minutes to complete, depending on your experiences.
Yes, the survey is completely voluntary.
No. You can choose which questions you want to answer and are not required to complete the survey once you start it. However, you need to answer at least 65% of the questions to receive a $5.00 gift card.
Yes. Each student voice is important for this survey. It is important that a variety of students share their views to improve an understanding of campus cultures and support safer campuses. We appreciate participation from everyone.
You can contact the Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey telephone number at CCI Research to request that your responses be removed. The telephone number is 866-450-4907.
The survey will be administered during a 4-week period in 2018:
  • Private career colleges – February 16 to March 16,
  • Universities – February 26 to March 26, and
  • Colleges – March 5 to April 2.
Please note that some institutions are still working with their Research Ethics Boards and may not have approval for the survey at this time.
We recognize that there are many demands on your time and that the largest group of postsecondary students in Ontario begin their studies in the Fall. February and March were chosen to allow most new students enough time on campus to become familiar with sexual violence policies and awareness programs, while not interfering with the most common winter break or final exam schedules.
The survey is planned for Winter 2018, and will be repeated once every three years. We believe this gives your institution sufficient time to review the results and to make necessary changes where gaps may have been identified.
Yes. As a token of thanks, you are provided with a $5.00 electronic gift card if you submit an online survey. This is an important survey and we ask that you complete all the questions that you can. Although you can skip any individual question, you must answer at least 65% of the questions to receive this incentive. After the survey is submitted, you are asked for your email address so that the electronic gift card can be sent to you.
CCI Research is obligated to protect the privacy of students and keep your responses to the survey confidential. To ensure this, your survey responses and the information you provide to receive your incentive will be kept completely separate.
Yes. The survey will be available in both English and French.
If at any time during the survey you feel upset or experience anxiety, the following options will be available to you through the online survey:
  • Quick Exit Button: This will take you out of the survey. You can choose to re-enter the survey later. If you do not go on to complete the survey by pressing the ‘submit’ button at the end of the survey, then your responses will not be used.
  • Support Button: This will provide you with information about the support services available at your institution or in the province.
  • In addition, during the survey preparations beginning in October, the public information site for this survey, will provide information about support services available.
There will be a “Save and Continue Later” button on each page of the online survey which will allow you to exit the survey and return to complete it at a later time. Responses will only be used if you press “Submit” at the end of the survey.
Yes. You can reach technical support at info@cci-research.com or by calling 1-866-450-4907. Contact information for technical support is also included in the email invitation and is available on the survey landing page.
The online survey is consistent with web accessibility guidelines and is compatible with computer-assisted reading support systems such as read&write, Zoomtext, Kurzweil, JAWS, NVDA, and Orca. If you require another format, please contact your institution (typically, the Disability or Accessibility Services Office).
The survey results will be shared with your institution in the Fall of 2018.
CCI Research will conduct this survey in a manner that protects your identity. Your name, student ID and email address will never be saved with your survey responses. Results will only ever be reported in a format that preserves confidentiality.
Results will only ever be reported in a format that preserves confidentiality. To protect the identity of students, the following rules will be applied by CCI Research before providing data and results to your institution:
  • No data file will be provided to an institution if there are not at least 300 responses from that institution,
  • No campus or other location, faculty or clustering of programs, will be identified in the data file if there are not at least 100 responses for that group,
  • No breakdown of information by individual program of study will be provided in the data file,
  • No personal demographic information will be provided by campus, faculty or other location or program clustering in the data if there are not at least 20 respondents included in each response item (excluding ‘Not Applicable’ and ‘Don’t Know’ responses).
    • For example, if you self-identify as a transwoman and only 18 other transwomen students at your campus complete the survey, we will not produce a report which compares the responses of transwomen students on any question with responses of other genders to that question.
  • Institutions will receive institution level results which will not identify any individual.
The survey was developed in consultation with an expert panel made up of representatives from student groups, private career colleges, colleges and universities, including researchers working on sexual violence. The panel examined a number of existing Sexual Violence Campus Climate Surveys developed or administered by institutions and organizations.
Using existing surveys as reliable models, the expert panel made recommendations regarding the sections and questions that should be included in the Ontario survey. CCI Research was then contracted to refine the survey for use in pre-testing, focus groups and a pilot in the fall of 2017.
The ministry’s Sexual Violence Reporting Advisory Committee was formed in 2015 and has been providing advice to the ministry related to this survey, and more broadly on measuring and reporting the prevalence of sexual violence at Ontario postsecondary education campuses. There are representatives on the Advisory Committee from:
  • The Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario
  • The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
  • The College Student Alliance
  • Violence Against Women Researchers
  • Violence Against Women Community Partners
  • Universities
  • Colleges
  • The Council of Ontario Universities
  • Colleges Ontario
  • Career Colleges Ontario
  • The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development
  • The Ontario Ministry of the Status of Women
On March 8, 2016, the government amended the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act and the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005 to require institutions to have sexual violence policies and report to the Minister or the Superintendent on the effectiveness of those policies. To support these changes the ministry developed this survey as one of two reporting mechanisms. The ministry is working on two projects intended to take a survivor-centric approach to data collection: this Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey and a set of Common Institutional Metrics.
The relevant legislation can be found at: The ministry owns the data and has contracted CCI Research to conduct the survey on their behalf.
An independent firm, CCI Research, has refined and is administering the survey in consultation with students and postsecondary institutions. CCI Research is a full-service Ontario-based survey research firm with over 25 years of experience specializing in survey research, assessments and evaluations for government ministries, educational institutions and organizations, public health units, municipal governments, and both private and publicly-owned business enterprises. CCI Research has conducted many large multi-institutional projects with colleges, private career colleges and universities, including many provincial projects in the postsecondary education sector in Ontario (e.g., the Student Satisfaction and Engagement survey with college students and the Ontario University Graduate Survey with university students).
The reporting requirements outlined in the legislation will provide the government with information that can be used to assess an institution’s efforts to address sexual violence and support students. The government’s public reporting of the data supports transparency and improves public confidence that institutions are aware of the issues of sexual violence on their campuses and have the information to take meaningful steps to respond and to promote the safety and security of their students.
Institutions will analyze the results to enhance their understanding of students’ perceptions of and experiences with sexual violence. The information will help colleges and universities:
  • Build awareness of sexual violence issues
  • Improve their sexual violence policies and processes
  • Improve their services and supports for survivors
Some results will be made available. For example, the overall Ontario results and a breakdown by type of institution (e.g. university, public college, private career college) will be published.
If you have questions beyond what is available here you may email info@cci-research.com, or if you prefer, call CCI Research at 866-450-4907.
The ministry is working on two projects intended to take a survivor-centric approach to data collection: this Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey and a set of Common Institutional Metrics. The Common Institutional Metrics are ongoing measurements of formal complaints/reports of sexual violence made by students.
The results of this survey along with the common institutional metrics are expected to create a robust and comprehensive narrative of students’ experiences with and perceptions of this issue. Together these projects satisfy institutions’ legal reporting requirements included in amendments to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) Act and Private Career Colleges (PCC) Act.