Educational attainment is of key interest for both academic research and education and social policy at the national and international levels. It is usually measured by the highest formal education certificate achieved and is one of the most used, but also most difficult to harmonise, socio-economic variables in survey research. Compared to labour market and occupational measures, the comparative measurement of education has received much less attention in sociological research and official statistics. Consequently, there is no consensus yet on how to best conceptualise and measure educational attainment: Different surveys, even within countries, implement different concepts, measurement and coding procedures.

There are signs of both convergence and continuing disagreement between academic and official surveys concerning the issue of education measurement. The ESRA conference 2013 is thus a good opportunity to:
- reflect on the ongoing changes across surveys and stakeholders,
- review and evaluate recent changes in measurement procedures in specific surveys,
- support coordination across stakeholders, and
- work towards a cross-national standard across surveys.

This session intends to bring together researchers and practitioners working for and with different cross-national surveys or official data concerning instrument design, data collection, harmonisation and analysis of education attainment and related concepts.