International Statistics on Higher
Education
As part of its work, the Secretariat for the Task Force on Higher
Education undertook some independent research describing and analyzing
cross-country patterns and trends in higher education. The Secretariat
quickly discovered that UNESCO is the main, but not the only,
source of basic data on higher education. The Secretariat also
discovered that the data available tend to be sketchy in terms
of the countries, years, and variables covered. In addition, the
quality of the data are generally not well established.
Considerable effort went into assembling and testing the consistency
of the cross-country data on higher education that were used in
crafting portions of this Report. These data are reproduced in
this Appendix, in the interests of transparency, of providing
readers with the raw data needed to facilitate making further
comparisons, and of sparing other researchers the time-consuming
and tedious task of duplicating our efforts. To increase the value
of this data supplement, the tables also include many standard
higher education indicators not specifically relied upon in the
report, as well as a number of general indicators of social and
economic development.
In addition to the printed tables, the data are available electronically
as part of the website maintained at the Center for International
Development at Harvard University (www.cid.harvard.edu). It is
anticipated that the data maintained on this website will be supplemented
from time to time with additional cross-country information related
to faculty compensation, international test scores, the nature
of higher education laws and regulations, faculty-to-student ratios,
indexes of public and private tuition, and numbers of public and
private higher education institutions and average enrollment levels
at each. In the course of preparing this report, we have particularly
felt the absence of reliable data on the number of institutions
of each type.
While assembling these data – all of which are derived from
cross-country compilations that aimed at consistency – we
have noted instances in which the figures given for a particular
country do not match those independently available from sources
within that country. For the sake of consistency, we have not
made adjustments to the tables in such cases.
The tables cover 178 countries, which are listed alphabetically.
They include data on enrollment, attainment, expenditure, research
output, and several other items. Past and current values are reported
for most indicators. Definitions for selected variables covered
in the tables appear in the notes following the tables, as do
references to the underlying data sources. Data aggregations for
geographical regions and economic groupings have been calculated
by weighting each country’s data by population. When appropriate,
weighting has been based on population subgroups.
Comparative and Historical Data
on Education
The primary international source of data about education at all
levels is UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural
Organization. UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics collects
and disseminates data on education from all countries and territories.
A large amount of data are available from 1960 onward.
The Institute’s main sources of information are official
replies to questionnaires sent to countries annually. Three types
of questionnaire are used: a questionnaire on education at pre-primary,
first and second levels; one on education at the tertiary level;
and one on educational finance and expenditure. Information is
collected on enrollment by level, gender, age, and field of study
(for higher education); teaching staff by level and gender; illiteracy;
educational attainment; and foreign students and graduates. The
Institute for Statistics also reviews ad hoc national surveys
designed to meet special needs, as well as other national publications
and reports. They supplement these data with information from
other international sources, including the Statistics and Population
Division of the United Nations (for population, literacy, and
attainment data), the World Bank (for GNP and other economic data),
and the International Monetary Fund (for exchange rates).
Within individual countries, the responsibility for collecting
data most commonly rests with the ministry of education or the
central bureau of statistics. Questionnaires completed by schools
are the basis for much of the information. Statistics on education
spending are an exception, and may most often be obtained from
central budgetary departments. Data on the adult population, such
as level of educational attainment and literacy rates, are typically
collected through national population censuses or through sample
surveys.
The Institute for Statistics examines the data it receives, cross-referencing
it with other sources and with the information maintained on its
own database. If the new information appears problematic, they
send a letter to the national authority cited as the source of
the information and request a clarification. Their aim is to receive
either corrected data, or an understanding of why the original
data are correct despite the apparent discrepancy. If the issue
is not resolved to their satisfaction, they may choose not to
publish the data or to add a footnote expressing their concerns.
UNESCO organizes all this data and publishes it in its annual
Statistical Yearbook, which is a major source of internationally
comparable data on education. Many additional UNESCO publications
draw on this data set or supplement it, and are listed within
the Yearbook. UNESCO data and publications lists are now easily
accessed electronically on the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
website, www.unesco.org. Computerized data are generally available
for 1970 onward. In addition, the very detailed tables of the
Statistical Yearbook exist as electronic spreadsheets that may
be accessed through queries to the Institute for Statistics.
Additional sources of international educational data include
the World Bank, which produces the World Development Report, and
other United Nations offices, such as the United Nations Development
Program, which publishes the annual Human Development Report.
A review of these publications demonstrates that almost all of
their international data on education are ultimately attributed
to UNESCO.
The most significant additional source of information on education
is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The OECD collects extensive data about its 29 member countries,
all highly developed nations. Beginning in 1998, 13 developing
nations also began contributing data to the OECD. OECD data on
education are significantly more detailed than usually available.
For example, data on literacy are collected through a specialized
instrument, the International Adult Literacy Survey, and reflect
specific literacy skills of the adult population. At the tertiary
level, OECD releases information otherwise not easily found, including
information on private as well as public sources of funding; net
enrollment ratios (as opposed to the gross enrollment ratios more
commonly available); and teacher/student ratios at the tertiary
level.
Some educational data are constructed by economists, based on
census data distributed by UNESCO or a similar source. Robert
Barro and Jong-Wha Lee, for example, have created estimates of
educational attainment at 5-year intervals for over 125 countries.
Their estimation procedure begins with census information on school
attainment, provided by individual governments and compiled by
UNESCO and other sources. The census data provide benchmark numbers
for a subset of dates under consideration. Missing cells are then
filled in by using school enrollment ratios at various levels
of schooling to estimate changes from the benchmarks to a more
current date. The basic idea is that the flow of the enrolled
population can be added to prior attainment levels to determine
future levels. In this manner, full estimates of educational attainment
can be obtained for most countries from the benchmark figures
of one or more years, and from the reasonably complete data on
school enrollment ratios.
In Barro and Lee’s 1996 data set, for example, 310 census
observations filled 35 per cent of the 882 possible cells from
1960 to 1990 for 126 countries. The estimation procedure described
above allowed them to construct a complete data set at 5-year
intervals for 105 of these countries. The data are incomplete
for the remaining 21 countries.
Limitations of the Data
There are three main issues that arise in using available national-level
data on education: the comparability of the data, both across
nations and over time; the consistency of the data; and the accuracy
of the data.
Comparability
The problem of ensuring consistency of educational data across
nations is a difficult one and is broadly recognized. In the 1998
Statistical Yearbook, UNESCO authors repeatedly warn users of
the need to take care when exercising comparisons between countries,
and especially across groups of countries. Many of the differences
between nations are detailed in charts that demonstrate differing
years of educational entry, different years of schooling offered
at the various levels, and different requirements about compulsory
education. Readers are warned of particular issues, such as the
counting of full-time and part-time teachers, which may vary across
nations and have a strong and potentially misleading impact on
data about pupil/teacher ratios.
Consistency
Efforts to deal with consistency problems have been under way
for many years. Work on the standardization of educational statistics
was first begun by UNESCO in 1926. Today’s data reflect the
impact of two sets of standards, the ISCED (International Standard
Classification of Education), and the Recommendation Concerning
the International Standardization of Educational Statistics that
was adopted by UNESCO in 1958 and revised in 1978 to make it compatible
with ISCED. ISCED provides general definitions of eight educational
levels, and provides definitions for 518 programs of education
and for 21 general fields of study. The Recommendation details
definitions and tabulations under four sections: statistics on
illiteracy; on the educational attainment of the population; on
enrollment, teachers, and educational institutions; and on educational
finance. Together these standards provide some basis for creating
greater international consistency for educational data.
That said, there is still reason to interpret much of the international
educational data with caution. Definitions, coverage and data-collection
methods still differ across countries and may vary over time within
countries, making interpretation difficult. The map of the world
changes over time, and countries subject to major transitions,
such as those of Eastern Europe, present problems of consistency
and comparability. Periods of war and internal crises will obviously
affect the ability of a country to produce sound statistical information.
Developing countries, particularly, vary in the amount of expertise
and resources they choose to devote to statistical research on
education.
Attempts to present information about educational financing across
countries are particularly troubled by issues of comparability.
One problem is the lack of complete information. Although many
countries provide data on public expenditure on education, some
limit their reporting to funds from the central ministry of education
and neglect to report financial support from other branches and
levels of government. Few nations report anything at all about
private expenditure, despite the fact that, in many countries,
private spending is a considerable factor at one or more levels
of educational institutions.
Another problem that makes it difficult to compare financial
information across nations is the blur between operating funds
and capital expenditure. For example, one UNESCO table displaying
data on operating expenditure for 108 countries had 12 footnotes
indicating that, for those nations, capital expenses were also
included in the figure.
A final – but particularly troublesome – issue in assessing
financial data relates to the difficulties inherent in comparing
different currencies across nations and over time. Without knowledge
of inflationary trends within a country, for example, it can be
difficult to compare the meaning of changing amounts of spending
over time. Comparing spending across countries is even more difficult.
Besides addressing inflationary pressures and currency conversion
issues, it is necessary to adjust figures to compensate for differences
in purchasing power from nation to nation over each year in question.
Our research uncovered studies in which financial expenditures
across the world were compared without properly considering each
of these conversion issues.
Accuracy
The overall accuracy of educational data is another issue of
serious concern. Jeffrey Puryear (1992) reports conversations
in 1992 with experts at UNESCO who estimate that data from perhaps
70 countries – slightly fewer than half of UNESCO’s
member states – suffer from serious accuracy problems. Amartya
Sen and Jean Drèze, in their monograph India: Economic
Development and Social Opportunity, refuse to use official data
on education, stating that these figures are known to be grossly
inflated, partly due to the incentive that government employees
at different levels have to report exaggerated figures. Although
official statistics portray a gross enrollment ratio of 98–99
per cent at the primary level, they present data from the census
and a National Sample Survey that show that only 40–42 per
cent of rural girls between age 5 and 14 attend school. India
is obviously not alone in having officials overstate rates of
enrollment for political reasons.
Data can also be unreliable due to poor assessment techniques.
The data on illiteracy present one example. Few people realize
that illiteracy rates are typically self-reported on population
census forms, and that there is no universally accepted objective
standard to evaluate literacy. Among the developed countries,
the OECD has collected data on functional literacy, but similar
efforts have been lacking within the developing world. In some
cases UNESCO considers attainment of a fourth-grade education
to be sufficient evidence of literacy, even though no data are
collected about the actual outputs of the educational process,
or the skills typically demonstrated by students upon completing
a given grade level. Measures such as literacy rates, which purport
to reflect actual achievement, therefore need to be viewed somewhat
skeptically.
In summary, though some efforts have been made to assess and
correct issues of comparability and accuracy of national-level
education data, much more work needs to be done. Given how extensively
these data are relied upon, higher priority should be given to
efforts in this area.
Table A: Gross
enrollment ratios (primary, secondary, tertiary)
Table B: Enrollment
data (tertiary)
Table C: Attainment
rates
Table D: Public
expenditure on education as a Whole
Table E: Expenditures
on tertiary education
Table F: Other
educational data (literacy rate, numbers studying abroad, etc.)
Table G: Other
Data
