International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) (2024)

Background

Education systems vary a lot between countries. International data on education should therefore be based on a classification which proposes, for all countries of the world, sound criteria for the allocation of education programmes to levels which can be considered as comparable.

The ISCED classification - International Standard Classification of Education - was developed by UNESCO in the mid-1970s and was first revised in 1997. A further review of ISCED was undertaken between 2009 and 2011 involving extensive global consultations with countries, regional experts and international organisations. Finally, ISCED 2011 was adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in November 2011.

ISCED 2011 (levels of education) took into account the changes in education systems occurred over the last decade, mainly relating to the Bologna process in tertiary education, but also to the expansion of education programmes for very young children. Additionally, for the first time, ISCED 2011 is clearly not only a classification of levels of education programmes (ISCED-P) but also a classification of educational attainment (ISCED-A) in terms of qualifications resulting from formal education programmes. With ISCED 2011 education programmes/qualifications can be coded up to 3-digit-level. The majority of codes are the same for ISCED-P and ISCED-A but there are also some exceptions, in particular in the case of short programmes for which educational attainment is downgraded to the lower ISCED level.

ISCED-F 2013 - ISCED Fields of Education and Training 2013 - is a classification of fields of education, which accompanies ISCED 2011. ISCED-F 2013 contains 11 broad fields (2 digits), 29 narrow fields (3 digits) and about 80 detailed fields (4 digits).

Implementation of ISCED 2011 (levels of education)

ISCED 2011 has been implemented in all EU data collections as from 2014. In household/individuals surveys, ISCED 2011 has been implemented as from reference year 2014 (see Commission Regulation (EU) No 317/2013) and in administrative data collections on education systems (UOE) as from school year 2012/13 (see Commission Regulation (EU) No 912/2013).

Methodological support

Methodological support was developed for the implementation of ISCED 2011.

• The ISCED 2011 operational manual, elaborated by UIS, OECD and Eurostat, provides guidelines for classifying national education programmes and related qualifications according to ISCED 2011. It was developed for national statisticians reporting data on education to international organisations and for all users interested in better understanding these data.

• For statisticians working on the household/individuals surveys including the variable "Educational attainment", Guidelines on the measurement of educational attainment in household surveys can serve as a methodological support.

• The UOE (UNESCO-OECD-Eurostat) data collection (from administrative data sources - on pupils/students, graduates, expenditure, teachers, languages and regional data) uses the UOE Manual on concepts, definitions and classifications.

National integrated ISCED mappings are available here.An ISCED integrated mapping is a table including information on national educational programmes and qualifications, their main characteristics and coding in ISCED 1997 and ISCED 2011.

Correspondence between ISCED 2011 and ISCED 1997

Levels of education in ISCED 2011

Compared to ISCED 1997 which had seven levels of education, ISCED 2011 has nine education levels, from level 0 to level 8 (tertiary education is more detailed):

• ISCED 0: Early childhood education (‘less than primary’ for educational attainment)
• ISCED 1: Primary education
• ISCED 2: Lower secondary education
• ISCED 3: Upper secondary education
• ISCED 4: Post-secondary non-tertiary education
• ISCED 5: Short-cycle tertiary education
• ISCED 6: Bachelor’s or equivalent level
• ISCED 7: Master’s or equivalent level
• ISCED 8: Doctoral or equivalent level

Correspondence between ISCED 2011 and ISCED 1997 levels (at 1 digit)

Correspondence between ISCED 2011 and ISCED 1997 (aggregated levels)

Eurostat’s online tables on or by educational attainment level (mainly from the EU Labour Force Survey but also from EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and other EU household/individuals surveys) present data for three main aggregates: low - medium - high level of education. The correspondence between ISCED 2011 and ISCED 1997 at this level of aggregation is as follows:

At this level of aggregation data are considered as comparable over time for all available countries (i.e. no significant level shift breaks) except Austria and Estonia:

• The level shift break in Austria is due to the reclassification of a programme spanning levels: the qualification acquired upon successful completion of higher technical and vocational colleges is allocated in ISCED 2011 to ISCED level 5; under ISCED 1997 the same qualification was reported on ISCED level 4, but earmarked as equivalent to tertiary education.
• The level shift break in Estonia is due to the reclassification of a programme that can last between 6 months and 3.5 years: the qualification acquired upon successful completion of 'vocational courses based on basic education' is allocated in ISCED 2011 to ISCED level 2; under ISCED 1997 this was reported as level 3.

In the online tables, the code list “ISCED11” is used and the change to ISCED 2011 as from 2014 is indicated through the flag ‘b’ (break in time series).

ISCED 1997 (fields) and ISCED-F 2013

2016 was the first year of implementation of the revised classification of fields of education and training - ISCED-F 2013 in EU data collections: in administrative data collections on education systems (UOE) it concerned school year 2014/15 and in household/individuals surveys reference year 2016.

Broad fields of education in ISCED 1997:

0 – General programmes

1 – Education

2 – Humanities and arts

3 – Social sciences, business and law

4 – Science

5 – Engineering, manufacturing and construction

6 – Agriculture

7 – Health and welfare

8 – Services

Broad fields of education in ISCED-F 2013:

00 – Generic programmes and qualifications

01 – Education

02 – Arts and humanities

03 – Social sciences, journalism and information

04 – Business, administration and law

05 – Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics

06 – Information and Communication Technologies

07 – Engineering, manufacturing and construction

08 – Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary

09 – Health and welfare

10 – Services

For more information on ISCED-F 2013 and in particular the correspondence between ISCED 1997 (fields) and ISCED-F 2013, please see here

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