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Graduate Student Experience in the Research University (gradSERU)

Make your grad experience count

The GradSERU (Graduate Student Experience in the Research University) survey is your chance to shape the future of graduate research and education at U of T. Your feedback helps improve programs, research opportunities, and campus life—for you and future students.

GradSERU is one of two comprehensive surveys of graduate students at the University of Toronto. First launched in 2017, the gradSERU survey focuses on the post-baccalaureate experience and covers topics including: selection and admission, financial support, advising, teaching and research experience, program climate, career plans, student wellbeing, obstacles to completion, and overall satisfaction. Learn more about how your responses shape graduate education at U of T.

This year’s survey runs from March 10 to May 5, 2026.

Check your inbox for your personal link to complete the survey now.

You can win!

Complete the full survey and you could win one of 30 $100 VISA gift cards!

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Graduate students asked for a way to provide feedback about their experiences; gradSERU is an avenue to do this.

We have taken extra steps to ensure that your responses remain confidential.

The University of Toronto is committed to the protection of privacy.

The following text is taken from the 2026 gradSERU survey:

Consent Form

Welcome to the Graduate Student Experience in the Research University (gradSERU) Survey, co-sponsored by the University of Toronto, the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota.

The gradSERU Survey is your opportunity to provide the campus with critical information about your graduate student experience—what is important to you, what is working well, and what is not working so well. The University uses this information to improve our programs and services for graduate students. The survey will take about 20-25 minutes to complete. Your answers will be held in strictest confidence and will be analyzed and reported in aggregate only.

Your participation is voluntary, and you are free to choose not to answer any question or withdraw from the survey at any time. A withdrawal notification should be communicated via email to gradseru@utoronto.ca. Once the withdrawal notification is received, the participant’s data will be removed from all data sets.

The survey includes some open-ended questions that allow you to provide a unique response. These responses will not be reviewed by University of Toronto researchers until after the survey has closed.

Potential risks in participating are minimal. Your survey responses are confidential, and your decision to respond will not affect your relationship with University of Toronto, the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, or the University of Minnesota.

We highly recommend that you complete the gradSERU Survey on a laptop or desktop computer—the survey does not function well on a smartphone.

If you agree to complete this survey, we would ask you to do the following things:

  • Click the “Agree” button
  • Fill out the gradSERU Survey, which will take approximately 20-25 minutes
  • Click the submit button at the end.

For disability services, access requests, or access-related survey support, please contact the Assistant Director of SERU Survey Research and Operations, Erin Tower, at 612-626-1875 or etower@umn.edu.  

If you have questions or concerns, you may contact the Managing Director of the SERU Consortium, North American Division, Daniel Jones-White at 612-624-4851 or djwhite@umn.edu.

If you would like to talk to someone other than the researcher(s), you are encouraged to contact Brian Desrosiers-Tam, Assistant Dean, School of Graduate Studies at brian.desrosierstam@utoronto.ca.

All degree-seeking graduate students who started their program during or prior to Fall 2022 are eligible to take the survey. New students as of Winter 2023 are not eligible to participate in this edition of gradSERU.

gradSERU is one of two comprehensive surveys of graduate education at the University of Toronto. gradSERU is more comprehensive than other surveys and includes a wide of range of questions specifically focused on graduate and professional student experiences at research universities. Additionally, gradSERU is readily customizable, allowing the introduction of questions specifically tailored to the University of Toronto. Learn more about how we measure our performance.

Yes. If you exit the survey before you’ve completed it, when you log back in to take the survey you’ll be directed to the place where you left off.

The survey works best if you take it using a desktop or laptop computer.

Results are reported to academic departments and administration at the University of Toronto and are used to improve our graduate programs and services. We also share our data with other universities in the gradSERU consortium to improve our understanding of educational best practices at leading research universities. The collected data is used by researchers, professors and students from various countries to gain a better understanding on how to improve the graduate and professional student experience.

gradSERU takes about 20–25 minutes to complete.

Yes, we will publish a data dashboard when the aggregated data is available. You can also see the 2017 gradSERU report and 2021 data dashboard above.

Participating North American gradSERU institutions:

  • Michigan State University
  • Purdue University
  • Rutgers University
  • University of Connecticut
  • University of Delaware
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Maryland
  • University of Oregon
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • University of Toronto
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Participating international gradSERU institutions:

  • University of Bremen (Germany)
  • University of Gottingen (Germany)
  • Lund University (Sweden)
  • Utrecht University (Netherlands)

Contact us at gradseru@utoronto.ca.

2023 survey results

Sponsored by U of T’s School of Graduate Studies, the gradSERU survey was most recently administered from March-May 2023. Explore the data through our public dashboard below.

View the 2023 gradSERU data for the University of Toronto

More SGS initiatives

Our performance

Help us identify our strengths and ensure our graduate programs continue to improve and inspire.

Learn more

Explore our data

Our dashboards provide data on the full doctoral student lifecycle to help you make more informed decisions.

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