OECD (2000)

Completion of and Dropout from Tertiary Education
Tertiary graduates are those who obtain a tertiary-type A or tertiarytype
B qualification or equivalent in the specified reference year. This
indicator distinguishes between different categories of tertiary qualifications:
i) first qualifications at the tertiary-type B level; ii) first tertiary-type A
qualifications; iii) second university qualifications (ISCED 5A); and iv) advanced
research degrees of doctorate standard. For some countries, these distinctions
are not always clear and data are not available for the categories requested. In
such cases, the country has assigned graduates to the most appropriate
category. University-level degrees at the ISCDE 5A level are also subdivided in
accordance with the total theoretical duration of studies at the level of
ISCED 5A, to allow for comparisons that are independent of differences in
national degree structures (see above).
Data on graduates refer
to 1997/98 and are
based on the UOE data
collection on education
statistics and the World
Education Indicators
Pilot Project,
administered in 1999
(details can be found
in Annex 3).
Table C4.2 generally presents net graduation rates. In the case of countries
that are able to provide information on graduates by single year of age, this
rate is calculated as the sum of age-specific graduation rates. The net graduation
rate can be interpreted as the percentage of people within a virtual age
cohort who obtain a tertiary qualification, thus being unaffected by changes in
population size or typical graduation age. Gross graduation rates are
presented for those countries that cannot provide such detailed data. Net
graduation rates are less affected by changes in the population size over time,
but gross graduation rates have been tested for their robustness against demographic
changes over time before being compared with net graduation rates in
this publication. In order to calculate gross graduation rates, countries identify
the age at which graduation typically occurs. The graduates themselves,
however, may be of any age. The number of graduates is then divided by the
population at the typical graduation age (see Annex 1). In many countries,
defining a typical age of graduation is difficult, however, because graduates are
dispersed over a wide range of ages.
C4
Table C4.4 shows the percentage distribution of qualifications among
women by subject categories. Tertiary graduates who receive their qualification
in the reference year are divided into categories based on their subject of
specialisation. These figures cover graduates from all of the university levels
reported in Table C4.2 (columns B-G). The comparability of the results
depends heavily on the extent to which countries are able to apply consistent
subject definitions in accordance with ISCED (Annex 3). There is still considerable
variation between countries in the way in which educational programmes
are classified by field of study.
© OECD 2000
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