Explanatory Notes

One of the key reasons for developing ASCED was to produce a single national classification of education. The use of a number of different classifications greatly inhibited the comparability of statistical data on education within Australia. ASCED supersedes the following classifications:

Australian Bureau of Statistics Classification of Qualifications

Australian Bureau of Statistics Classification of Qualifications (ABSCQ) is a classification used to describe post-secondary educational qualifications. It contains separate classifications for Level of Attainment and Field of Study.

Field of Study Classification of Higher Education Courses

Field of Study Classification of Higher Education Courses (FOSCHEC) is a classification used to describe higher education courses. Fields of study are grouped on the basis of similarity of potential vocations rather than similarity of content and the classification was developed specifically for the categorisation of courses to fields of study.

Field of Study Classification of Tertiary Education Courses

Field of Study Classification of Tertiary Education Courses (FOSCTEC) is a classification used to describe vocational education and training courses. Fields of study groups were determined by the similarity of potential vocations rather than similarity of content. It is based on FOSCHEC with additional fields for vocational education and training purposes.

Classification of Higher Education Discipline Groups

Classification of Higher Education Discipline Groups describes the primary subject matter content of an education module, independent of the context in which it may be taught. It is used to classify branches of learning in the higher education sector.

Discipline Group - VET

Discipline Group - VET is an extension of the Classification of Higher Education Discipline Groups to suit the requirements of the VET sector.

The correspondence tables in the following appendices detail the conceptual relationships between ASCED and a number of other classifications.

They provide information on the conceptual links between relevant classifications and therefore do not attempt to show every “partial” or one-to-many link. Wherever possible, correspondence tables have been developed at the most detailed level of each classification.

Several of the superseded field of study discipline group classifications include “general” categories. For example, the FOSCTEC includes a category of “010201, Agriculture, Forestry - General”. The definitions of such categories are often broad and may correspond to many ASCED Detailed Fields. In some of these cases it is possible to provide a correspondence to a Narrow or Broad Field. When this is the case, a supplementary code ending in two or four zeros is assigned, to show a correspondence to the appropriate Broad or Narrow Field (see supplementary codes on page 18). In other cases, no correspondence to an ASCED category is shown. In the reverse correspondence table, however, where a particular ASCED category corresponds to only a “general” category this relationship is shown. This enables all ASCED categories to correspond to at least one category in the other classification.

Level of Education

Appendix  2:  ASCED - ABSCQ Level Correspondence Table
Appendix  3:  ABSCQ - ASCED Level Correspondence Table

Field of Education

Appendix  4:  ASCED - ABSCQ Field Correspondence Table
Appendix  5:  ABSCQ - ASCED Field Correspondence Table
Appendix  6:  ASCED - FOSCHEC Correspondence Table
Appendix  7:  FOSCHEC - ASCED Correspondence Table
Appendix  8:  ASCED - FOSCTEC Correspondence Table
Appendix  9:  FOSCTEC - ASCED Correspondence Table
Appendix 10:  ASCED - Higher Education Discipline Groups Correspondence Table
Appendix 11:  Higher Education Discipline Groups - ASCED Correspondence Table
Appendix 12:  ASCED - Discipline Group - VET Correspondence Table
Appendix 13:  Discipline Group - VET - ASCED Correspondence Table