Making Decisions that Impact Students
As the organization representing all undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo, WUSA is committed to engaging with and supporting students.
We are constantly involved in decision-making that directly impacts students, which makes it important for us to keep a pulse on what services students need and what issues are most important to them.
We do this by consulting with students through a variety of methods including surveys and focus groups.
This results in timely, quality data that is used to create actionable recommendations to inform our advocacy efforts at the institutional, municipal and provincial levels.
Get Involved
To ensure that we have the data necessary to inform our advocacy efforts and decision-making, we need students to participate in research consultations.
There are three main ways students can get involved:
OUSA Consultations
WUSA is a member of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), a student-led, provincial advocacy organization representing the interests of undergraduate students across Ontario.
Twice a year, students from OUSA’s member associations come together to debate and approve the policies that will guide the organization for the coming years.
Our research team at WUSA consults with students on these policy issues to ensure that concerns specific to the University of Waterloo are adequately represented in the provincial advocacy work that OUSA engages with.
Surveys
Surveys are available for all University of Waterloo undergraduate students to participate in.
In the past, we’ve done surveys on the topics of accessibility, housing, student-run services, returning to campus, and course quality.
Focus Groups
Focus groups are also available for all University of Waterloo undergraduate students to participate in.
In the past, we’ve completed focus groups on topics such as digital learning and student publications.
Research Reports
Representative Survey Platform
We think it’s important for all University of Waterloo undergraduate students to have the opportunity to share their voice on issues that impact them. This is why the above consultation opportunities are open for all students to participate in. However, we recognize that this makes us vulnerable to a substantial selection bias in terms of which students get involved. This creates barriers to having a representative view of our membership, its needs and its opinions.
To rectify this and obtain representative data, WUSA developed a program whereby a representative sample of undergraduate students are selected to answer a series of surveys throughout a given academic term or year. These students are compensated for each survey that they complete.