Education statistics
Glossary
Academic year: The term “Academic year” is synonymous with “school year”(See also Reference period)
Active population: The 'active population' represents the total number of employed and unemployed persons in the population. The data source for ‘active population’ is the Eurostat Labour Force Survey.
Age: Students and teachers are classified by their age as of 1st of January, independent of the reference date for the data collection. The reference date for age is the same as in Eurostat’s population statistics.
C
Capital expenditure – see Expenditure, total expenditure:
Child care: The distinction between programmes that fall into ISCED 0 (pre-primary education) and programmes that are outside of the scope of ISCED-97 (child care) rests primarily on the educational properties of the programme. As the educational properties are difficult to assess directly, several proxy measures are used to determine whether or not a programme is classified at ISCED level 0. (See pre-primary education.)
Class size: Information on class size is collected for primary and lower secondary education. The data collection is limited to these two levels of education because differences across countries in the organisation of the educational systems are considered manageable at these levels.
The average class size is in principle the total number of pupils divided by the total number of classes. Students attending special needs programmes and such classes are excluded.
A class is in the data collection referred to as a ‘division’ made up of students who follow a common course of study. Students can for parts of the teaching be divided into sub-groups or be enrolled in other partitions. The data collection does not take notice of such groups or partitions but include only the more stable notion of classes (divisions).
Classroom Teachers: Classroom Teachers (ISCED 0-4) is a staff sub-category (of Educational personnel) including professional personnel involved in direct student instruction. The classification includes classroom teachers, special education teachers and other teachers who work with students as a whole class in a classroom, in small groups in a resource room, or one-on-one inside or outside a regular classroom. It includes chairpersons of departments and school level management personnel whose duties include some amount of student instruction. These personnel are prorated between instructional personnel and school level management according to the time they spend on different duties and responsibilities in the number of full-time, part-time and full-time equivalent teachers. Staffs with mainly school level management duties are not included in the data on teachers by age.
The category ‘classroom teachers ‘does not include student teachers, teachers’ aides, or paraprofessionals.
Combined school- and work-based programmes – see school-based programmes:
Completion: Successful completion is defined according to the graduation requirements established by each country: in some countries, completion occurs as a result of passing a final, curriculum based examination or series of examinations. In other countries, completion occurs after a specific number of teaching hours has been accumulated (although completion of some or all of the course hours may also involve examinations). Only the national definition of a successful completion should be applied when countries report data; countries should not try to emulate what they think might be occurring in other countries.
Compulsory education: As established by the individual country, ISCED 1-2 or ISCED 1-3.
Compulsory schooling ages: The definition of the ending age of compulsory schooling refers to the legal age from which children are not compelled to go to school anymore (for instance 15th birthday).
Current expenditure – see Expenditure, total expenditure:
E
Early childhood education – see Pre-primary level of education:
Educational institutions: Educational institutions are defined as entities that provide instructional services to individuals (i.e. instructional educational institutions like schools or universities) or education-related services to individuals and other educational institutions (e.g. non-instructional educational institutions like entities administering educational institutions or entities providing support services).
Educational programme: Educational programmes are defined on the basis of their educational content as an array or sequence of educational activities which are organized to accomplish a predetermined objective or a specified set of educational tasks. Objectives can, for example, be preparation for more advanced study, qualification for an occupation or range of occupations, or simply an increase of knowledge and understanding.
Entrants – see New entrants:
Expenditure, accounting principles: In keeping with the system used by many countries to record government expenditures and revenues, the educational expenditure data are compiled on a cash accounting rather than an accrual accounting basis. That is to say that expenditure (both capital and recurrent) is recorded in the year in which the payments occurred. This means in particular that:
§ Capital acquisitions are counted fully in the year in which the expenditure occurs;
§ Depreciation of capital assets is not recorded as expenditure, though repairs and maintenance expenditure is recorded in the year it occurs;
§ Expenditure on student loans is recorded as the gross loan outlays in the year in which the loans are made, without netting-off repayments from existing borrowers.
Expenditure for all levels of education combined: It encompasses the expenditure for all programmes from pre-primary level of education (ISCED 0) to (ISCED 6). Moreover, it includes the expenditure reported in the UOE data collection on education statistics that could not be allocated by level.
Expenditure on educational institutions from private sources: Expenditure on educational institutions from private sources comprises school fees; materials such as textbooks and teaching equipment; transport to school (if organised by the school); meals (if provided by the school); boarding fees; and expenditure by employers on initial vocational training.
Expenditure on educational institutions from public sources: Expenditure on educational institutions from public sources corresponds to direct expenditure on educational institutions from public sources. It may take one of two forms:
§ purchases by the government agency itself of educational resources to be used by educational institutions (e.g. direct payments of teachers’ salaries by a central or regional education ministry);
§ payments by the government agency to educational institutions that have responsibility for purchasing educational resources themselves (e.g. a government appropriation or block grant to a university, which the university then uses to compensate staff and to buy other resources).
Direct expenditure by a government agency does not include tuition payments received from students (or the families) enrolled in public schools under that agency’s jurisdiction, even if the tuition payments flow, in the first instance, to the government agency rather than to the institution in question.
Expenditure, total expenditure: Total expenditure comprises current and capital expenditure. Current expenditure comprises personnel expenditure and other current expenditure.
Capital expenditure: Capital expenditure represents the value of educational capital acquired or created during the year in question − that is, the amount of capital formation − regardless of whether the capital outlay was financed from current revenue or by borrowing. Capital expenditure includes outlays on construction, renovation, and major repair of buildings and expenditure for new or replacement equipment. Although capital investment requires a large initial expenditure, the plant and facilities have a lifetime that extends over many years.
Current expenditure: Current expenditure is expenditure on goods and services consumed within the current year, which needs to be made recurrently to sustain the production of educational services. Minor expenditure on items of equipment, below a certain cost threshold, is also reported as current spending. Current expenditure encompasses personnel and other current expenditure.
Personnel expenditure: Personnel expenditure comprises salaries of educational personnel, expenditure for retirement as well as other non-salary compensations (fringe benefits). Salaries are the gross salaries of educational personnel, before deduction of taxes, contributions for retirement or health care plans, and other contributions or premiums for social insurance or other purposes. Additional bonuses to basic salary (e.g. arising from the experience, age or other circumstances of the personnel) should be included. Expenditure for retirement (pension schemes) - covers actual or imputed expenditure by employers or third parties to finance retirement benefits for current educational personnel. This expenditure excludes pension contributions made by the employees themselves, whether deducted automatically from their gross salaries or otherwise. Expenditure on other non-salary compensation - covers spending by employers or third parties on employee benefits other than pensions. These benefits may include such things as health care or health insurance, disability insurance, unemployment compensation, maternity and childcare benefits, other forms of social insurance, non-cash supplements (e.g. free or subsidised housing), free or subsidised child care, and so forth.
Other current expenditure: Other current expenditure encompasses expenditure on contracted and purchased services, on other resources or for instance on property taxes that educational institutions may be required to pay. Expenditure on contracted and purchased services is expenditure on services obtained from outside providers, as opposed to services produced by the education authorities or educational institutions themselves using their own personnel. Examples are services obtained under contracts (e.g. maintenance of school buildings), ancillary services (e.g. preparation of meals for students) or rents paid for school buildings and other facilities. Expenditure on other resources covers the purchases of other resources used in education, such as teaching and learning materials, other materials and supplies, items of equipment not classified as capital, fuel, electricity, telecommunications, travel expenses, and insurance.
Expenditure, total public expenditure: Generally, the public sector funds education either by bearing directly the current and capital expenses of educational institutions (direct expenditure for educational institutions) or by supporting students and their families with scholarships and public loans as well as by transferring public subsidies for educational activities to private firms or non-profit organisations (transfers to private households and firms). Both types of transactions together are reported as total public expenditure on education.
Field of education: The fields of education used in the UOE data collection instruments follow the revised ISCED classification by field of education.
This classification distinguishes the following fields:
Education including Teacher training (ISC 141), Education science (ISC 142)
Humanities and Arts including Arts (ISC 21), Humanities (ISC 22)
Social sciences, business and law including Social and behavioural science (ISC 31), Journalism and information (ISC 32), Business and administration (ISC 34), Law (ISC 38)
Science Life sciences (ISC 42), Physical sciences (ISC 44),Mathematics and statistics (ISC 46), Computing (ISC 48)
Engineering, manufacturing and construction, Engineering and engineering trades (ISC 52), Manufacturing and processing (ISC 54), Architecture and building (ISC 58)
Agriculture, Agriculture, forestry and fishery (ISC 62), Veterinary (ISC 64)
Health and welfare Health (ISC 72), Social services (ISC 76)
Services, Personal services (ISC 81), Transport services (ISC 84), Environmental protection (ISC 85), Security services (ISC 86)
Students not classifiable by field of education should be allocated to the category “Field of education unknown”.
Final funds: Final funds are the share of total education expenses spent directly by a level of government. They include expenditure on educational institutions from public sources and public subsidies to the private sector.
Financial aid: Financial aid to students as currently defined in the UOE data collection on education statistics is referring only to direct public assistance to pupils or students in the form of scholarships, public loans and family allowances contingent on student status. This is not a full measure of the level of assistance students may receive as for instance, students may also get financial support like loans from private banks, ancillary services (i.e. student welfare services such as meals, transportation, health care or dormitories) or tax reductions. The financial aid to pupils/students varies as the educational systems are different across countries.
Foreign languages: All modern languages that are taught as "foreign languages". (Data are collected for ISCED levels 1, 2 and 3.) Ancient Greek, Latin, Esperanto and sign languages are not included.
The educational curriculum drawn up by the central education authorities in each country defines the languages, which are to be considered as “foreign languages” in that country and this definition is applied in the data collection. Regional languages are included, if they are considered as alternatives to foreign languages by the curriculum. Only foreign languages studied as compulsory subjects or as compulsory curriculum options are included. The study of languages when the subject is offered in addition to the minimum curriculum is not included. Also data on non-nationals studying their native language in special classes or those studying the language of the host country are excluded.
Foreign students: Students are non-national students or foreign students if they do not have the citizenship of the country for which the data are collected.
Full-time, educational personnel: The classification of educational personnel as “full-time” and “part-time” is based on a concept of working time. The stipulation of full-time employment is usually based on “statuary hours”, or “normal or statutory working hours” (as opposed to actual or total working time or actual teaching time). Some countries operationalise the concept of statutory working time through statutory teaching time.
Part-time employment refers to individuals who have been employed to perform less than the amount of statutory working hours required for a full-time employee.
A teacher employed for at least 90 per cent of the normal or statutory number of hours of work for a full-time teacher over a complete school year is classified as a full-time teacher for the reporting of head-count data. A teacher employed for less than 90 per cent of the normal or statutory number of hours of work for a full-time teacher over a complete school year is classified as a part-time teacher.
Full-time, students: Since the theoretical and actual duration of education programmes differs widely between programmes and countries, and since there are no internationally accepted norms, relative national norms are applied to establish full-time participation.
All students enrolled in primary and secondary level educational programmes are considered full-time when head-count data are reported, if they attend school for at least 75 per cent of the school day or week (as locally defined) and if they have been in the programme for the entire academic year. Otherwise, they should be considered part-time.
A special issue arises at the pre-primary level. Since this level sometimes involves large non-educational components (leading to large variations in the daily duration of these programmes), students enrolled in pre-primary programmes should be considered full-time if they attend school for at least 75 per cent of the school day or week as locally defined for the primary level of education and are expected to attend school for the whole reference period.
At the tertiary level, an individual is considered full-time (when head-count data are reported) if he/she is taking a course-load/educational programme considered to require at least 75 per cent of a full-time commitment of time and resources. Additionally, it is expected that the student has remained in the programme for the entire academic year.
Full-time equivalents (educational personnel): Full-time equivalents (FTE) are calculated in person-years. When FTEs are calculated on a specific date, the seasonal variations in personnel should be accounted for. The metric for the measurement of full-time equivalents is full-time employment, i.e. a full-time teacher equals one FTE. The basis for the calculation is the “statuary working hours”. Full-time teachers who receive additional contracts / remuneration to perform additional teaching tasks are counted only once as a full-time teacher, but with a full-time equivalence factor greater than one.
Full-time equivalents students: A full-time equivalent (FTE) measure attempts to standardise a student’s actual load against the normal load. Calculating the full-time / part-time status requires information on the time periods for actual and normal loads. National norms are applied for this purpose.
Where data and norms on individual participation are available (e.g. “credentials”), the product of the fraction of the normal course load for a full-time student and the fraction of the school / academic year is used as a measure of course-load. [FTE = (actual study load/normal study load) * (actual duration of study during reference period/normal duration of study during reference period).]
If equivalent programmes exist separately as full-time and part-time programmes, then the ratio of the theoretical durations of these programmes can be used as a proxy for the conversion factors of part-time data into full-time equivalents.
When actual study load information is not available, a full-time student is considered equal to one FTE and part-time students are estimated to FTEs according to best knowledge in the country. If no information for estimation is available, one part-time student is considered 0.5 FTE.
General education – see Programme orientation
Government dependent private institutions: The terms “government dependent” and “independent” refer only to the degree of a private institution's dependence on funding from government sources; they do not refer to the degree of government direction or regulation.
A government-dependent private institution is one that receives more than 50 per cent of its core funding from government agencies. An independent private institution is one that receives less than 50 per cent of its core from government agencies. “Core funding” refers to the funds that support the basic educational services of the institutions. It does not include funds provided specifically for research projects, payments for services purchased or contracted by private organisations, or fees and subsidies received for ancillary services, such as lodging and meals.
Graduate: Graduates are those who successfully complete an educational programme during the reference year of the data collection. (See Completion.)
A condition of a successful completion is also that students should have enrolled in, and successfully completed, the final year of the corresponding educational programme, although not necessarily in the year of reference. Students who do not complete the final year of an educational programme, but later successfully complete a recognised “equivalency” examination based on knowledge learned outside of the education system, are not counted as graduates.
Data on all graduations are not collected. In some countries, students enrolled in a given ISCED level may complete a programme or obtain a qualification after a period of time which may be considered too short for the purposes of classification as full completion of the ISCED level in question. At ISCED 3, only successful completion of a 3A or 3B programme (designed to provide access to level 5) and a 3C programme of the same cumulative duration as 3A and 3B is counted. ISCED-97 requires ISCED 5A first degrees to have a minimum 3 years full-time equivalent duration. At ISCED 5B, only successful completion of programmes with duration of more than 2 years is counted as graduate.
Head-teacher: School level management personnel like principals, assistant principals, headmasters, assistant headmasters and other management staff with similar responsibilities. Head-teachers may have teaching-responsibilities. If so, the amount of teaching is included in the number of full-time equivalent teachers, while when counting head-counts, the personnel is pro-rated between functions to get a correct count of individuals in total employed in education.
Independent private institutions: See Private institutions.
Initial funds: Initial funds correspond to the share of total education spending made available by a level of government. They include expenditure on educational institutions from public sources and public subsidies to the private sector.
International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED): The education statistics refer to education in the ordinary school and university system, as defined in the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). The current ISCED is ISCED -97, which was implemented in the UOE data collection from 1998. The basic unit of classification in ISCED-97 is the educational programme. The purpose of ISCED is to provide an integrated and consistent statistical framework for the collection and reporting of internationally comparable education statistics. It covers two cross-classification variables: levels and fields of education with the complementary dimensions of general/vocational/pre-vocational orientation and educational/labour market destination. ISCED 97 distinguishes seven levels of education, from pre-primary education (ISCED 0) to tertiary education leading to an advanced research qualification (ISCED 6).
ISCED-97 - comparison with ISCED-76: The biggest change between ISCED-97 and ISCED-76 is the introduction of a multidimensional classification framework, allowing for the alignment of the educational content of programmes using multiple classification criteria. These dimensions include (1) the type of subsequent education or destination to which the programme leads, (2) the programme orientation (general, prevocational or vocational education), (3) the programme duration (for the ISCED levels 3, 4 and 5, at which programmes that vary widely in duration exist) and (4) position in the national degree and qualification structure. In ISCED-1976, there was no such provision.
In the revised version of ISCED, a new level, Level 4, has been introduced to cover programmes which straddle the boundary between upper secondary and post-secondary education from an international point of view, even though some of them might be considered either upper secondary or post-secondary programmes in the national contexts. In ISCED 1976, such programmes belonged either to Level 3 or Level 5.
The new Level 5 consists of programmes that do not lead directly to an advanced research qualification while Level 6, is now reserved for programmes leading to advanced research qualifications. Level 5 in ISCED-97 corresponds approximately to levels 5 and 6 of ISCED-76, as well as graduate programmes (e.g. those leading to the Master’s degree) in countries with an undergraduate/graduate split that were previously part of Level 7. Advanced research qualifications are now covered exclusively in the new Level 6. Level 9 of ISCED 1976 was reserved for the educational programmes that could not be allocated to any other level. Level 9 has been eliminated in ISCED-97. It is presumed that all educational programmes can be classified in one of the proposed seven levels (0 to 6).
Levels of government:
All levels of government combined: All levels of government combined comprise the central, regional and local levels of government. They encompass all government sources with the exception from international sources.
Central level of government: The central level of government corresponds to the national level.
Regional level of government: The regional level of government corresponds for instance to a province, a state or a Land.
Local level of government: The local level of government corresponds for instance to a municipality, a district or a commune.
New entrants to a level of education: New entrants to a level of education are students who are entering any programme leading to a recognised qualification at this level of education for the first time, irrespective of whether the students enter the programme at the beginning or at an advanced stage of the programme. For example, a student may enter an advanced stage in a programme by virtue of credits gained for work experience or courses taken at another level. Individuals who are returning to study at a level following a period of absence from studying at that same level are not considered to be new entrants.
Any new entrant to a particular level of education is also a new entrant to a programme and a new entrant to a field of education at that level. However, new entrants to a programme or field of education at a given level of education are not necessarily new entrants to that level.
Foreign students who are enrolling for the first time in the country for which the data are being collected should be counted as new entrants, regardless of their previous education in other countries.
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS): The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics serves as a reference for the collection, development and harmonisation of EU regional statistics and for socio-economic analyses of the regions. Data on regional enrolments in education are collected for NUTS 2 levels.
Non-national students - see foreign students:
Part-time – see Full-time classification (of educational personnel, students):
Pre-primary level of education (ISCED 0): Pre-primary education is defined as the initial stage of organised instruction, designed primarily to introduce very young children to a school-type environment, that is, to provide a bridge between home and a school-based atmosphere.
Boundary between education and child care: The distinction between programmes that fall into ISCED 0 and programmes which are outside of the scope of ISCED-97 rests primarily on the educational properties of the programme. As the educational properties are difficult to assess directly, several proxy measures are used to determine whether or not a programme should be classified at this level. Programmes which are school or centre based; are designed for children at least 3 years old and not older than 6; and which require pedagogical qualifications for the teaching staff are considered pre-primary education.
Pre-vocational education – see Programme orientation
Primary level of education (ISCED 1): Programmes normally designed to give students a sound basic education in reading, writing and mathematics. Literacy or basic skills programmes within or outside the school system which are similar in content to programmes in primary education for those considered too old to enter elementary schools are also included at this level because they require no previous formal education.
Private educational institutions: An institution is classified as private if ultimate control rests with a non-governmental organisation (e.g. a Church, Trade Union or business enterprise), or if its Governing Board consists mostly of members not selected by a public agency.
Private sources (of funds): Private sources comprise private households (i.e. students and their families) as well as other private entities (e.g. private business firms and non-profit organisations, including religious organisations, charitable organisations, and business and labour associations).
Programme destination: The type of subsequent education or destination to which the programme leads (labour market entry or further studies). Programmes in ISCED 2, 3 and 4 are classified according to programme destination.
Programme orientation: The programme orientation towards a general, pre-vocational or vocational content. Programmes in ISCED 2, 3 and 4 are classified according to programme orientation.
General education: Programmes which are not designed explicitly to prepare participants for a specific class of occupations or trades or for entry into further vocational or technical education programmes. Less than 25 percent of the programme content is vocational or technical.
Pre-vocational education: Programmes which are mainly designed to introduce participants to the world of work and prepare them for entry into further vocational or technical education. Successful completion does not lead to a labour-market relevant vocational or technical qualification. For a programme to be considered as pre-vocational, at least 25 percent of its content has to be vocational.
Vocational education: Programmes which prepare participants for direct entry, without further training, into specific occupations. Successful completion of such a programme leads to a labour-market relevant vocational qualification.
Public educational institutions: An institution is classified as public if ultimate control rests with (1) a public education authority or agency or, (2) a governing body (Council, Committee etc.), most of whose members are appointed by a public authority or elected by public franchise.
Public sources (of funds): Public sources correspond to all levels of government (i.e. central, regional and local levels of government).
Public subsidies to the private sector: Public subsidies to the private sector include financial aid to students (e.g. scholarships, student loans and child allowances contingent on student status) as well as government transfers to other private entities. Government transfers - and certain other payments (mainly subsidies) - to other private entities (firms and non-profit organisations) can take diverse forms like for example, transfers to business or labour associations that provide adult education; subsidies to firms or labour organisations (or associations of such entities) that operate apprenticeship programmes; subsidies to non-profit organisations that provide student housing or student meals; or interest rate subsidies to private financial institutions that make student loans.
Pupils – see Students:
Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) and Purchasing Power Standards (PPS): Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) are a fictive 'currency' unit that eliminates differences in purchasing power, i.e. different price levels, between countries. Thus, the same nominal aggregate in two countries with different price levels may result in different amounts of purchasing power. Figures expressed in Purchasing Power Standards are derived from figures expressed in national currency by using Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) as conversion factors. These parities are obtained as a weighted average of relative price ratios in respect to a homogeneous basket of goods and services, both comparable and representative for each country. They are fixed in a way that makes the average purchasing power of one Euro in the European Union equal to one PPS. The calculation of GDP in PPS is intended to allow the comparison of levels of economic activity of different sized economies irrespective of their price levels.
Reference date for student ages – see Age
Reference period: The reference periods for the UOE statistics are:
- For finance: the financial year, which for most countries are the calendar year
- For graduates: the calendar year
- For all other data: the school / academic year. In the presentations of non-monetary statistics other than on graduates, "1998" stands for school/academic year 1997/98, "1999" for 1999/2000 and so on.
Retirement expenditure: Expenditure on retirement (pension schemes) is included in the total expenditure (current expenditure, personnel expenditure) and means actual or imputed expenditure by employers or third parties to finance retirement benefits for current educational personnel. This expenditure does not include pension contributions made by the employees themselves, or deducted from their gross salaries.
School-based programmes: At the upper secondary level (ISCED 3) and the non-tertiary post secondary level (ISCED 4), “vocational & prevocational programmes” are further divided into “school-based programmes” and “combined school and work-based programmes” on the basis of the amount of training that is provided in school as opposed to training in the work place. Programmes are classified as school-based if at least 75 per cent of the curriculum is presented in the school environment (covering the whole educational programme) where distance education is included. Programmes are classified as combined school- and work-based if less than 75 per cent of the curriculum is presented in the school environment or through distance education. The amount of instruction provided in-school should be counted over the whole duration of the programme.
School-level management - See Head-teacher:
School year: The term “school year” is synonymous with “academic year” (See Reference period)
Scope of education in the UOE data collection: The UOE data collection cover all organised and sustained learning opportunities for children, youth and adults, including those with special educational needs, irrespective of the institutions or organisations providing them or the form in which they are delivered. They cover school-based general education and vocational education/training (including combined school- and work-based programmes such as dual system apprenticeship). Entirely (initial and continuing) work-based education and training which no formal education authority has oversight for is not included in the statistics. Programmes or studies designated as ‘adult education’ or ‘continuing education’ are included only if the content is similar to regular educational programmes or lead to similar potential qualifications.
Secondary level of education (ISCED 2-4): It encompasses programmes of the lower secondary level of education (ISCED 2), the upper secondary level of education (ISCED 3) and the post secondary non-tertiary level of education (ISCED 4). The lower secondary level of education (ISCED 2) generally continues the basic programmes of the primary level, although teaching is typically more subject-focused, often employing more specialised teachers who conduct classes in their field of specialisation. The upper secondary level of education (ISCED 3) is the final stage of secondary education in most countries. Instruction is often more organised along subject-matter lines than at ISCED level 2 and teachers typically need to have a higher level, or more subject-specific, qualification that at ISCED 2. There are substantial differences in the typical duration of ISCED 3 programmes both across and between countries, typically ranging from 2 to 5 years of schooling. The programmes at post-secondary, non-tertiary level of education (ISCED 4) straddle the boundary between upper secondary and post-secondary education from an international point of view, even though they might clearly be considered as upper secondary or post-secondary programmes in a national context. These programmes are often not significantly more advanced than programmes at ISCED 3 but they serve to broaden the knowledge of participants who have already completed a programme at level 3. The students are typically older than those in ISCED 3 programmes. They typically have a full-time equivalent duration of between 6 months and 2 years.
Special education: Countries have various programmes and delivery mechanisms to provide educational services to mentally, physically, or emotionally disadvantaged students and other groups with special learning needs. These vary in terms of definitions, programmes offered, degree to which special education is integrated into the regular education system, classification of special education students, and type of support given to these students.
Data on special education is included in the statistics regardless of normal or special needs of students and of educational institutions. Data are included in all statistics on students, educational personnel and finance if the main aim of the programme is the educational development of the individual. All students in special education programmes are assigned to specific ISCED levels, either directly or by estimation.
Students: A student is defined as any individual participating in educational services covered by the data collection. The number of students enrolled refers to the count of students studying in the reference period, the school/academic year. Double-counting should be avoided.
Teachers – see Class room teachers:
Tertiary level of education (ISCED 5-6): The tertiary level of education is the aggregation of first stage of tertiary education (ISCED 5A and 5B) and the second stage of tertiary education leading to an advanced research qualification (ISCED 6). At ISCED 6, the programmes are devoted to advanced study and original research. The programmes at the first stage of tertiary education have an educational content more advanced than those offered at levels 3 and 4. Tertiary-type A programmes (ISCED 5A) are largely theoretically based and are intended to provide sufficient qualifications for gaining entry into advanced research programmes and professions with high skills requirements. Tertiary-type B programmes (ISCED 5B) are generally more practical/technical/occupationally specific than ISCED 5A programmes.
Theoretical starting age: The theoretical starting age relates to the theoretical duration of the regular education system and assumes that no years are repeated. The theoretical starting age refers to the age established by law or regulation.
The theoretical starting age in ISCED 3 is the age at the beginning of the first school year of an ISCED 3 programme. The theoretical starting age in ISCED 5 is the age at the beginning of the first academic year of the ISCED 5 A or B programme.
The theoretical ages can differ substantially from the typical ages.
Total expenditure – see Expenditure, total expenditure:
Total public expenditure - see Expenditure, total public expenditure:
Vocational education – see Programme orientation: