Thank you for agreeing to complete the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) 2025 International Student/Alumni Survey. Before continuing, we require your informed consent. Please read the terms and conditions below, which are also available on our website. If you have any questions about this research initiative, the survey, the procedures or your rights as a participant, you can contact CBIE’s research team at research-recherche@cbie.ca.
About CBIE:
CBIE is the national voice advancing Canadian international education by creating and mobilizing expertise, knowledge, opportunity, and leadership. As such, CBIE is a global leader in international education, dedicated to equity, quality, inclusiveness, and partnership.
Purpose of the survey:
The CBIE International Student/Alumni Survey supports the international education sector’s capacity to drive informed, innovative practices by increasing understanding of the stories, motivations, and perceptions of international students who choose to study in Canada. Your responses will help the sector better understand the international student/alumni experience in Canada and will inform policy changes, program design, and advocacy regarding international students with institutions and government partners. Once published, survey research/policy briefs will be available in the CBIE Research Library.
Survey respondents:
- International students enrolled in a post-secondary institution studying (full-time or part-time) to obtain a degree/diploma/certificate in Canada. This includes international students studying in Canada with a student study permit, visitor’s visa, or undertaking research on a work permit.
- The survey sample also includes former international students who have completed their studies at a Canadian post-secondary institution.
- International students less than 16 years of age cannot complete this survey due to Canada’s legislation regarding the age of majority and informed consent.
- Given the scope of this research, international exchange students are not meant to be included in this survey sample.
Completing the survey:
- The survey is designed to study the international student/alumni experience in Canada. Details regarding this national surveying initiative are available on the CBIE website.
- There is a low potential for risk that participants will experience negative feelings if they have had difficult experiences.
- This survey will take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.
- You will be asked a number of questions regarding your experience as an international student on campus and in the extended community.
- Participation in this survey is voluntary. Refusal to participate or discontinuation of participation will not result in consequences or loss of benefits; however, incomplete questionnaires will be automatically removed and will not be eligible for the draw.
- You have the right to refuse to answer any question by selecting the “prefer not to answer” option.
- You can save your progress (option located in the top-right corner of your screen) and exit/return at any time until the survey closing date (November 26, 2025).
- If, at any point during the survey, you experience any discomfort, know that resources are available from the Canadian Mental Health Association or from the mental health services offered at your institution.
Confidentiality:
- The data of respondents remains strictly confidential.
- Your email address is collected only for the purpose of validating institutional match, to remove your data if requested, and to contact you in case you win a prize. We do not collect information on your IP address. All data collected is anonymized for analysis and retention. CBIE only shares the anonymized datasets with partnership institutions. All data collected is anonymized for analysis and retention. CBIE only shares the anonymized datasets with participating institutions.
- CBIE uses its professional Alchemer business account to collect participant data. CBIE has exclusive access to the survey data collected through Alchemer. Alchemer complies with Canadian privacy (all data resides on Canadian servers) and accessibility standards (W3C).
- CBIE will retain the anonymized data for 25 years and utilize it to produce longitudinal studies. Once the retention period is over, the CBIE research team will delete the data from the CBIE servers (SharePoint, Microsoft and Alchemer). There is a 14-day retention period between the deletion from CBIE servers and data destruction by Microsoft and Alchemer.
Withdrawing from the survey:
- You may withdraw from the survey at any time by closing your browser.
- You can request the removal of your data before November 30, 2025, by sending your request to research-recherche@cbie.ca.
- Note that incomplete questionnaires will be automatically removed, and data will be deleted.
Survey draw and prizes:
- At the end of the survey, you will have the option to participate in a draw to win $1,000. There are three $1,000 prizes (Visa gift cards). Winners will be randomly selected from the pool of students who complete the survey. The odds of winning depend on the number of students who complete the survey. For the 2023 iteration of the survey, the odds were about 1 out of 10,000.
- If your email is selected in the draw, CBIE will contact you in December 2025.
- Please ensure that the email you provide is valid and that you check your inbox (and spam/junk mail) regularly from December 8- 18, 2025, for an email from research-recherche@cbie.ca.
- The three winners must claim their prize within 14 days of the email notification and validate their identity.
- Email addresses will not be associated with any of the data provided in the questionnaire.
- The institutional representative will be copied on the message to validate the legitimacy of CBIE’s communication and to ensure the email is not treated as spam or junk mail.
Ethics approval:
This project has been reviewed and approved by the Community Research Ethics Board. If you feel you have not been treated according to the descriptions in our information, or your rights as a participant in research have been violated during this project, you may contact the Chair, Community Research Ethics Board, at: Centre for Community Based Research | Attn: Community Research Ethics Office | c/o Conrad Grebel University College | 140 Westmount Road North, Waterloo ON N2L3G5 or by email: creoadmin@communityresearchethics.com.
