New Zealand Standard Classification of Education (NZSCED)

The New Zealand Standard Classification of Education (NZSCED) is a subject-based classification system for courses and qualifications at universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, wananga and private training establishments in receipt of Government funding.

The classification system consists of three levels of detail (broad, narrow and detailed fields) defining each subject or field of study. NZSCED has been designed to improve the quality and consistency of statistics collected by the Ministry of Education and other collection agencies in relation to tertiary study, and to improve New Zealand's international statistical reporting compliance.

The New Zealand Standard Classification of Education - Field of Study (NZSCED-Field) is a Ministry of Education owned classification based on a classification developed in 2001 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which is known as the Australian Standard Classification of Education - Field of Study (ASCED-Field). 

NZSCED-Field and ASCED-Field are harmonised (i.e. are the same) at Broad and Narrow Field levels and differ at the Detailed Field level only to take account of two countries' differing educational and statistical needs. However, even at Detailed Field they are closely aligned.  

Statistics NZ is looking into the issue of co-ordinating a review of NZSCED with the major review of ASCED which is proposed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to occur 'after 2006'.  Until a review is completed the original version of NZSCED is still in use.