What is the Better Data Project?
UVic launched the Better Data Project in November 2023. It is focused on collecting demographic details of UVic’s campus community (Faculty, Staff and Students). It replaces the Employee Equity Survey and provides an ongoing collection point for students. Once aggregated, the data will be used to help inform support structures, strategies, and institutional plans. Basically, the goal is to better understand who makes up the University community and to adjust programs to better serve that community.
What you need to know:
Above all else, the information you choose to provide is voluntary; there is an option to “prefer not to answer” for each category and for all categories. It is also collected and housed in a secure database separate from other employee and student records. Collection is confidential but not anonymous, which allows users to update their data as it changes; reporting is anonymous as it is aggregated data.
- There are six categories of interest, and these largely align with equity-deserving groups: Gender identity; Sexual orientation; Disability; Indigenous identity; Racial and/or ethnocultural identity; and Religious and/or spiritual identity.
- The information you provide is connected to you as far as being uniquely yours to provide or decline to provide but cannot be traced back to you in its aggregate form. Small offices will not be shown to data analysts so there is no way to reverse-identify who provided which data.
- A very limited number of individuals in Systems and EQHR have access to the raw data for the purpose of database maintenance and oversight. They must adhere to the highest standards of privacy and confidentiality when interacting with non-aggregate data.
- the goal is to improve diversity — possibly through limited and preferential hiring or to build strategies for better attraction and retention in key populations — while also building better supports including mentorship programs for specific under-represented populations.
For more information (including FAQs), please see the Better Data Project page.
To take the survey, or to change your responses, you can find a link in your Online Tools section once logged in:
