International Standard Classification of Education fields of education and training 2013 (ISCED-F 2013): detailed field descriptions

The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is a framework for assembling, compiling and analysing cross-nationally comparable statistics on education. ISCED is a member of the United Nations International Family of Economic and Social Classifications and is the reference classification for organizing education programmes and related qualifications by levels and fields of education. First developed in the mid-1970s by UNESCO, ISCED has been revised several times, including in both 2011 and 2013. The revision in 2011, concentrated primarily on changes to the levels of education of programmes (ISCED-P) and introduced for the first time a classification of levels of educational attainment based on qualifications (ISCED-A). The 2013 revision focused on the fields of education and training (ISCED-F). The ISCED revisions are the product of international agreement and are adopted formally by the General Conference of UNESCO Member States.

The current document describes the subject content of each of the detailed fields of the 2013 revision of the ISCED fields of education and training classification (ISCED-F 2013). Where possible, each description gives examples both of subjects which belong to each field and some boundary cases which are included in other fields. Such exclusions help to better distinguish one field from another especially where the content of two fields appears to be similar. At the end of the document there are alphabetical and numerical listings of subjects and fields. These lists include more examples of subjects than are mentioned in the field descriptions themselves. A summary of all possible field codes and their place in the classification hierarchy is also included.

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