Skip to Main Content

Education: Sources of Statistics

Data and Statistics

This page introduces you to sources of UK and International statistical information.

For information on collecting your own statistics as part of empirical research go here.

Get Support

A recording is available introducing the sources and searching Education Research Complete/ERIC; for more in depth support you can book a Finding Information and Referencing Tutorial.

Online support is available in understanding and being critical with statistical information; for more in depth support you can book a Statistics Tutorial.

Explore education statistics

Explore Education Statistics portal

The Explore education statistics portal is for accessing Department for Education and Office of National Statistics data.

Create your own data tables on a variety of themes to explore data via levels of education at National, Regional and Local Authority area, including:

Citing and Referencing

When referencing a data table you have created from Explore education statistics follow this format:

ONS and DfE (Publication Date) Data table title. Available at: Permalink from Ees website (Accessed: date you created the table).

The citation will then look like this:

(ONS and DfE, Publication Date)

For detailed instructions to do this open this document:

Ofsted and OHID

Link to OFSTED

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities

Higher Education Statistics: UCAS

UCAS

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is an independent charity and the UK's shared admissions service for higher education.

Data and Analysis is available, which includes these themes:

International Statistics

International Statistics Link

Higher Education Statistics: HESA

Higher Education Statistics Authority

The Higher Education Statistics Agency collects, assures and disseminates data about higher education (HE) in the UK.

Data and analysis is available, which includes these themes:

Higher Education Statistics: HEPI

Higher Education Policy Institute

The Higher Education Policy Institute is an independent UK Think Tank created to shape the higher education policy debate through evidence.

Their publications include statistical analysis.

Higher Education Statistics: OfS

Office for Students Link

The Office for Students is an independent public body working with HE providers to make sure students succeed.

Data and analysis is available, which includes these themes:

Glossary of terms

CAH (Common Aggregation Hierarchy) - provides a hierarchical grouping of subject codes and terms. CAH1 has broad subject groupings, CAH2 medium subject groupings and CAH3 has detailed subject groupings.

POLAR (Participation Of Local AReas) - classifies areas across the UK based on the proportion of young people who participate in higher education looking at how likely young people are to participate in higher education. Quintile one shows the lowest rate of participation. Quintile five shows the highest rate of participation.

TUNDRA (Tracking UNDer Representation by Area) - classifies local areas across England into five equal groups based on the proportion of 16 year old state-funded mainstream school pupils who participate in higher education aged 18 or 19 years. Quintile one shows the lowest rate of participation. Quintile five shows the highest rate of participation.

Literature Searching for studies

Education Research ERIC

Search with your subjects terms on our research databases Education Research Complete and ERIC, and include the terms quantitative or qualitative.

You will find studies in Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles using those forms of research methodology.