Skip to content

Fix the inverted EDUCQUAL to highest_education mapping #460

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
juaristi22 wants to merge 2 commits into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Fix the inverted EDUCQUAL to highest_education mapping #460

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
2 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
186a215
Fix EDUCQUAL mapping - codes were inverted (1-7 are degrees, not 17-21)
nikhilwoodruff Feb 23, 2026
050cd50
Add changelog entry for the EDUCQUAL codeframe fix
juaristi22 Aug 17, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions changelog.d/459.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
Fix the EDUCQUAL to highest_education mapping, which read the FRS highest-qualification codeframe inverted: codes 1-7 are degree-level (1 = Doctorate) and 17-21 are A-level equivalents per the FRS 2023-24 data dictionary (UKDS SN 9367).
126 changes: 92 additions & 34 deletions policyengine_uk_data/datasets/frs.py
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -695,43 +695,101 @@ def determine_education_level(fted_val, typeed2_val, age_val):
)

# Add highest education from EDUCQUAL (highest qualification achieved)
# Codes from FRS ADT_324X classification; unmapped codes default to UPPER_SECONDARY
# Based on FRS 2022-23 documentation (SPSS value labels)
EDUCQUAL_MAP = {
1: "NOT_COMPLETED_PRIMARY",
2: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GCSE D-G / CSE 2-5
3: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GCSE A-C / O-level A-C
4: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # AS-level
5: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # A-level (1 subject)
6: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # A-level (2 subjects)
7: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # A-level (3+ subjects)
8: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Scottish Standard/Ordinary Grade
9: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Scottish Higher Grade
10: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Scottish 6th Year Studies
# Degree level and above (TERTIARY)
1: "TERTIARY", # Doctorate or MPhil
2: "TERTIARY", # Masters, PGCE or other postgrad
3: "TERTIARY", # Degree inc foundation degree
4: "TERTIARY", # Teaching qualification (excl PGCE)
5: "TERTIARY", # Foreign qualification at degree level
6: "TERTIARY", # Other work-related qual at degree level
7: "TERTIARY", # Other professional qual at degree level
# Higher education below degree (POST_SECONDARY)
8: "POST_SECONDARY", # Other HE qualification below degree
9: "POST_SECONDARY", # Nursing or other medical
10: "POST_SECONDARY", # Diploma in higher education
11: "POST_SECONDARY", # HNC/HND
12: "POST_SECONDARY", # City & Guilds advanced / BTEC National
13: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # City & Guilds craft / BTEC General
14: "POST_SECONDARY", # ONC/OND / BTEC National (lower)
15: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # City & Guilds foundation
16: "POST_SECONDARY", # RSA advanced
17: "TERTIARY", # First/foundation degree
18: "TERTIARY", # Second degree
19: "TERTIARY", # Higher degree (Masters/PhD)
20: "TERTIARY", # PGCE / teaching qualification
21: "TERTIARY", # Nursing/paramedical qualification
66: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 1
67: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 2
68: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 3
69: "POST_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 4
70: "TERTIARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 5
12: "POST_SECONDARY", # BTEC higher level
13: "POST_SECONDARY", # SCOTVEC higher level
14: "POST_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 4
15: "POST_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 5
16: "POST_SECONDARY", # RSA higher diploma / OCR Level 4
# A-level equivalent (UPPER_SECONDARY)
17: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # A-Level or equivalent
18: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced
19: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Scottish Baccalaureate
20: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # International Baccalaureate
21: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # AS-level or equivalent
22: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Certificate of 6th Year Studies
23: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Access to Higher Education
24: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Scottish Higher/Intermediate
25: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Skills for work Higher
26: "POST_SECONDARY", # ONC/OND
27: "POST_SECONDARY", # BTEC National level
28: "POST_SECONDARY", # SCOTVEC National level
29: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # New Diploma Advanced
30: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # New Diploma Progression
31: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 3
32: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # GNVQ Advanced
33: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # RSA advanced diploma / OCR Level 3
34: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # City and Guilds advanced craft
35: "UPPER_SECONDARY", # Welsh Baccalaureate Intermediate
# GCSE/O-level equivalent (LOWER_SECONDARY)
36: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # O-Level (5+)
37: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Scottish Standard Grade (5+)
38: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GCSE (5+)
39: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # CSE (5+)
40: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Scottish National level 5
41: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Skills for work National 5
42: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # BTEC first diploma
43: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # SCOTVEC first diploma
44: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # New Diploma Higher (level 2)
45: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 2
46: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GNVQ Intermediate
47: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # RSA diploma / OCR Level 2
48: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # City and Guilds craft
49: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Other high school leavers qual
# Below GCSE / basic qualifications
50: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # BTEC (unspecified)
51: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # BTEC first cert
52: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # SCOTVEC (unspecified)
53: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # SCOTVEC first cert
54: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # SCOTVEC modules
55: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # New Diploma (unspecified)
56: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # New Diploma Foundation
57: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Welsh Baccalaureate (unspecified)
58: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Welsh Baccalaureate Foundation
59: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ (unspecified)
60: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # NVQ/SVQ Level 1
61: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GNVQ (unspecified)
62: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GNVQ Part One Intermediate
63: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GNVQ Full Foundation
64: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GNVQ Part One Foundation
65: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # O-Level (unspecified)
66: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # O-Level (fewer than 5)
67: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Scottish Standard Grade (unspecified)
68: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Scottish Standard Grade (fewer than 5)
69: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GCSE (unspecified)
70: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # GCSE (fewer than 5)
71: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Scottish National 1-4
72: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Scottish National (unspecified)
73: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Skills for work National 3-4
74: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Skills for work (unspecified)
75: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # CSE (unspecified)
76: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # CSE (fewer than 5)
77: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # RSA/OCR (unspecified)
78: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # RSA other / OCR Level 1
79: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # City and Guilds (unspecified)
80: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # City and Guilds foundation
81: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # YT Certificate
82: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Key Skills / Core Skills
83: "NOT_COMPLETED_PRIMARY", # Basic Skills (literacy/numeracy)
84: "NOT_COMPLETED_PRIMARY", # Entry Level Qualifications
85: "NOT_COMPLETED_PRIMARY", # Award/Certificate at entry level
86: "LOWER_SECONDARY", # Other professional/vocational/foreign
}
# Codes 22-65 and 71-85 are further vocational/professional qualifications;
# treat as POST_SECONDARY. Codes 86-87 are catch-alls; treat as UPPER_SECONDARY.
for code in range(22, 66):
EDUCQUAL_MAP[code] = "POST_SECONDARY"
for code in range(71, 86):
EDUCQUAL_MAP[code] = "POST_SECONDARY"
EDUCQUAL_MAP[86] = "UPPER_SECONDARY"
EDUCQUAL_MAP[87] = "UPPER_SECONDARY"
# Code 87 is missing - means no qualification data; default to UPPER_SECONDARY

educqual = pd.to_numeric(person.educqual, errors="coerce")
pe_person["highest_education"] = educqual.map(EDUCQUAL_MAP).fillna(
Expand Down