Understanding Society User Support

Dear Lydia,

Many thanks for your enquiry. The team is looking into it and we will get back to you shortly.

Best wishes, Victoria.

On behalf of the Understanding Society Data User Support Team

Dear Lydia,

I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

For your first question, I think that the definition of "low, medium and high" will depend on your research question, and how you want to classify qualifications to best suit your research. Can you be a bit more clear about what you would like clarification of?

With regard to "other qualification", in terms of data colection this is a catch-all category, at any level. What you can tell from this response is that (a) they have a qualification and (b) that qualification is not one of those listed. We can suggest that you look closely at the data within that category to see what it tells you (e.g. can you drop those cases?) - but this will depend on your research question.

Best wishes, Victoria.

Dear Lydia,

Re: point 1, I think it is the other way around - there is a BHPS ISCED classification already, but this is not possible with UKHLS, as there is not enough detail as yet in this dataset. Therefore it wouldn't be possible, at the moment, to create a harmonised ISCED variable that covers both BHPS and UKHLS.

Re: point 2: there are 2 variables in the BHPS that would tell you whether someone has no qualifications: wQFHAS and wQFED (the response option for "no" for these variables is 2).

We have a colleague here who we could put you in touch with if you require any further advice about the UK qualification system etc - please let me know if you would like me to do this.

Many thanks, Victoria.