Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Target 4.b: By 2020, substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries

Indicator 4.b.1: Volume of official development assistance flows for scholarships by sector and type of study

Institutional information

Organization(s):

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Concepts and definitions

Definition:

Gross disbursements of total ODA from all donors for scholarships.

Concepts:

ODA: The DAC defines ODA as “those flows to countries and territories on the DAC List of ODA Recipients and to multilateral institutions which are

  1. provided by official agencies, including state and local governments, or by their executive agencies; and
  2. each transaction is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective; and
  3. is concessional in character and conveys a grant element of at least 25 per cent (calculated at a rate of discount of 10 per cent). (See http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/officialdevelopmentassistancedefinitionandcoverage.htm)

Scholarships: Financial aid awards for individual students and contributions to trainees. The beneficiary students and trainees are nationals of developing countries. Financial aid awards include bilateral grants to students registered for systematic instruction in private or public institutions of higher education to follow full-time studies or training courses in the donor country. Estimated tuition costs of students attending schools financed by the donor but not receiving individual grants are not included here, but under item imputed student costs (CRS sector code 1520). Training costs relate to contributions for trainees from developing countries receiving mainly non-academic, practical or vocational training in the donor country.

Rationale:

Total ODA flows to developing countries quantify the public effort that donors provide to developing countries for scholarships.

Comments and limitations:

Data in the Creditor Reporting System are available from 1973. However, the data coverage is considered complete from 1995 for commitments at an activity level and 2002 for disbursements.

Data for scholarships are only available since 2010 when the new typology of aid was introduced in DAC statistics.

Methodology

Computation method:

The sum of ODA flows from all donors to developing countries for scholarships.

Treatment of missing values:

  • At country level:

Due to high quality of reporting, no estimates are produced for missing data.

  • At regional and global levels:

Not applicable.

Regional aggregates:

Global and regional figures are based on the sum of ODA flows for scholarships.

Sources of discrepancies:

DAC statistics are standardized on a calendar year basis for all donors and may differ from fiscal year data available in budget documents for some countries.

Data sources

Description:

The OECD/DAC has been collecting data on official and private resource flows from 1960 at an aggregate level and 1973 at an activity level through the Creditor Reporting System (CRS data are considered complete from 1995 for commitments at an activity level and 2002 for disbursements).

Data for scholarships are only available since 2010 when the new typology of aid was introduced in DAC statistics.

The data are reported by donors according to the same standards and methodologies (see here: http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/methodology.htm).

Data are reported on an annual calendar year basis by statistical reporters in national administrations (aid agencies, Ministries of Foreign Affairs or Finance, etc.

Collection process:

A statistical reporter is responsible for the collection of DAC statistics in each providing country/agency. This reporter is usually located in the national aid agency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Finance etc.

Data availability

Description:

On a recipient basis for all developing countries eligible for ODA.

Time series:

Data are available from 2010.

Disaggregation:

This indicator can be disaggregated by donor, recipient country, type of finance, etc.

Calendar

Data collection:

Data are published on an annual basis in December for flows in the previous year. Detailed 2015 flows was published in December 2016.

Data providers

Data are reported on an annual calendar year basis by statistical reporters in national administrations (aid agencies, Ministries of Foreign Affairs or Finance, etc.

Data compilers

OECD

References

URL:

www.oecd.org/dac/stats

References:

See all links here: http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/methodology.htm