The European Tertiary Education Register (ETER) is a European-level dataset providing a reference list of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Europe and data at the institutional level on HEIs’ activities and outputs, covering students, graduates, personnel and finances.
As of spring 2025, ETER includes 41 countries in Europe and provides data from 2011 to 2022/2023 for a total number of 34 817 observations. The countries covered so far are the EU-27 countries, the United Kingdom, EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway), candidate and potential candidate countries to the European Union (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Türkiye, Kosovo*), as well as Andorra and the Holy See.
ETER is implemented together with a network of data providers in the National Statistical Authorities (NSAs) and national ministries in charge of higher education in the participating countries. While not part of the European Statistical System, ETER is largely compliant with statistical regulations and manuals, specifically with the UNESCO-UIS/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) data collection on formal education (UOE Manual) and the OECD Frascati Manual on research and experimental development (R&D) statistics. It is also embedded within the OECD Analytical Database of Higher Education Providers (ADHEP) project.
The main ETER data collection process involves the collection and validation of data relating to students, degrees, finances, personnel and research activities, i.e. the core of the ETER dataset, from NSAs and national ministries in charge of higher education. It is performed on a country-by-country basis in close cooperation between the EHESO team and country correspondents. The Handbook for the European Tertiary Education Register data provides a detailed description of the data collection methodology for the ETER data collection. The handbook provides basic definitions, the perimeter for data collection, classification schemes for data, the definition of variables and guidelines for data collection and quality control.
Supplementary data collection involves integrating additional variables derived from existing databases at the European and international levels, such as data concerning Erasmus mobility or quality assurance variables. It is performed directly by the EHESO team in partnership with the source databases.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.