Comparable statistical indicators for postsecondary education on a provincial/territorial basis continue to be desired by all jurisdictions. The first edition of "A statistical portrait of university level education in Canada" presenting university level statistics, responds to this need. This publication provides historical and up to date information (1977-74 to 1993-1994) for each of the following major categories: demography of the university age population, student participation in education, student graduation, university staff and university finance. In addition, the document provides an overview of the structure and financing of each provincial/territorial education system.

The 1981 Supplement adds more than 3000 entries to the approximately 10,500 listed in the original volume and in the 1965 and 1971 Supplements. Like its predecessors, this volume provides a full list of the secondary sources related to Canadian higher education – books, articles, theses ,dissertations, and reports published from 1971 to 1980. The reporting, arrangement of entries, and overall organization of the material remains the same as in the 1971 Supplement.

International education indicators provide the opportunity to compare America's performance with that of other countries, to identify similarities and differences between our systems and others, and to suggest new approaches to the challenge of providing a world class education. Comparisons are among Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. Students in the U.S. perform well in comparison with their peers in other countries in reading and less well in geography and science; their weakest area is math. Public financial investment in education in the U.S. is among the highest.