ISCED Coding
ISCED Coding
Field of Study coding using ISCED
Field of Study coding for this report is based on the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), developed and used by the OECD and Eurostat. As per the Enrolment and Graduand Report a number of additional codes have been added to ISCED to take account of courses with an equal combination of different subjects. Data is coded in the survey file according to the 3-digit detailed fields.
In relation to the first year of undenominated courses in arts and science we recommend that the ISCED codes 200 (Combined Arts & Humanities) and 400 (Combined Science, Mathematics and Computing) be used as detailed information will be obtained from the "Subject" fields.
Rules on ISCED Field of Study Coding
There are 103 detailed fields of education at Level 3.
The relationship of the academic content of the course and the detailed fields of education at level 3 has been compiled according to the following rules:
A course in a single subject is allocated to its detailed field of education
If a combination of two subjects lies within one detailed field of education, the course is allocated to that field of education
If a combination of two subjects lies within more than one detailed field of education, with a major/minor split, the qualification is allocated to the area relating to the major part of the study.
If a course contains an even combination of two subjects, then the following rules apply.
These rules only apply when it is not possible to allocate a course on the basis of a major/minor split.
If a combination of two subjects is evenly split and lies across more than one detailed field (level 3) but within one narrow (level 2) field of education, the course is allocated to the combined field of study within that narrow field. For example, an even combination of physics and chemistry is allocated to 440 : Combined Physical Science.
If a combination of two subjects is evenly split and lies across more than one narrow field (level 2) but within the same broad field (level 1), the course is allocated to the combined broad filed denoted by 00 i.e An even combination of Biology and Chemistry is allocated to 400 : Combined Science, Maths & Computing.
If a combination of two subjects is evenly split and lies across more than one broad field (level 1) the course is allocated to 900: Balanced Combination across different broad fields. See below for the one exception to this rule.
The only exception to the former is a course that consists of an even combination of subjects from 'Humanities & Arts' and 'Social Science, Business and Law'. In this case the course is allocated to 910 : Balanced Combination of 'Humanities & Arts' and 'Social Science, Business and Law'
The full set of codes for this report is available in the Survey File Format file, on the 'ISCED Code' tab.
ISCED "Fields of Education and Training Manual"
This is an excellent reference manual. It provides a detailed breakdown of the original ISCED fields, but does not include the additional fields for combined courses. For all other course types, however, the Report provides comprehensive information on course allocation, including an alphabetic code list. It is available for download below.
Information Reference
ISCED Fields of Education and Training Manual