The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) is the largest long-term educational study in Germany. In seven starting cohorts, the development of competencies and the educational trajectories of a total of more than 70,000 participants are monitored - from early childhood to old age. In addition, about 50,000 people from their environment, such as parents and educational professionals, are surveyed.

The overall goal of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) is to describe and explain competence development, educational processes, their conditions, outcomes and consequences over the entire life course (→ analytic potentials). To this end, the NEPS network provides high-quality longitudinal data for the scientific community. For this, the NEPS has accompanied more than 70,000 participants and about 50,000 contextual persons in what are now seven→ starting cohorts since 2008. Using the so-called → Multicohort Sequence Design (MKSD), these seven starting cohorts are arranged in such a way that they cover all educational phases of the life course. Due to the coordinated design and survey program (→ conceptual framework), it is possible to distinguish between cohort, age, and period effects for certain questions and points in time.

The NEPS is supported by an interdisciplinary, Germany-wide → NEPS network in which renowned researchers and their teams from thirteen research institutes and universities work together in the various → NEPS units. The NEPS is based at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg. The management of the NEPS is incumbent upon → Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt.

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What the NEPS offers

The NEPS Data Offer - Data Treasure for Science

Data from six NEPS starting cohorts and the NEPS additional studies are available to the scientific community free of charge as scientific-use files.

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Scientific publications based on NEPS data

More than 3,000 researchers are already working with NEPS data - in over 30 countries worldwide. Here you will find an overview of all publications based on NEPS data.

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Results of NEPS research - generally understandable

Analyses and research results from the NEPS network with high social relevance, compactly prepared. The transfer reports are aimed at science, journalism, educational policy, administration and practice.

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NEPS Add-on Models

In order to further exploit the great potential of the NEPS data and to open it up to external content, various add-on models are possible. On the one hand, there are explicit NEPS Call for Modules (CfM) at regular intervals to integrate additional content into the survey programme. On the other hand, qualitative or quantitative add-on studies can also be addressed by external parties to the participants of the start cohorts in the wide-meshed monitoring, if certain framework conditions are met.

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Information for participants

Participants in the NEPS study receive regular notes and feedback on the surveys and tests in the respective starting cohorts.

Website for participants

NEPS Forschung kompakt: New Transfer Series launched

The series "NEPS Forschung kompakt" and "NEPS Corona & Bildung" present analyses with high social relevance in a compact and generally understandable way (in German). They are aimed equally at science, journalism, education policy, administration and practice.

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The NEPS Data Treasure: Analytic potentials of the interwoven NEPS starting cohorts

The conceptual framework of NEPS

The NEPS survey program is based on a conceptual framework that outlines the subject area in terms of substantive core topics, central questions, and theoretically assumable interrelationships from a transdisciplinary perspective across the life course. Thus, the content-related analysis potentials of the NEPS, on which the → NEPS pillars and → NEPS stages work together, can be derived from the conceptual framework.

Conceptual framework [PDF - german only]

The NEPS starting cohorts

The NEPS focuses on education throughout the life course and in parallel at different stages of education. This means that educational trajectories, processes and decisions are considered from early childhood education in kindergarten and school to vocational training, university studies and even after leaving the education system. In order to be able to provide data for all these phases as promptly as possible, the starting cohorts, as the samples drawn in the NEPS are called, are conceptually interlinked (→ Multicohort Sequence design). The first starting cohort (SC6 | Adults) was launched in 2009, and the most recent starting cohort (SC8 | Grade 5) in 2022.

The panel participants are surveyed over a longer period of time, usually annually, and tested regularly. The data obtained in this way are processed and made available to the scientific community as scientific use files (SUF) 18 months after the end of the fieldwork for the respective survey (→ data offering). For some of the starting cohorts, this close-meshed monitoring has since changed to a more wide-meshed mode with a survey every five years that focuses on long-term educational outcomes.

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SC 1 | Newborns

Launched in 2012 with approximately 3,400 6-8-month-old infants and their mothers (individual sample)
Ongoing: early childhood education and individual transition to out-of-home care
From 2017: Transition to elementary school
From 2021: Transfer to a type of lower secondary school
To date: Monitoring of the educational trajectory at school

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SC 2 | Kindergarten

Launched in 2010 with approximately 3,000 children and their parents (institutional sample)
From 2012: Transition to elementary school and refreshment by about 6,300 children in grade 1
2016: Regular transfer to a type of lower secondary school
From 2021: First transitions to vocational training
From 2022: Transitions to upper secondary education
To date: Wide-ranging monitoring of the further educational trajectory of adolescents and young adults and recording of educational outcomes

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SC 3 | Grade 5

Launched in 2010 with approximately 6,100 students at the start of lower secondary school (institutional sample)
2012: Refreshment by about 2200 students in grade 7
From 2015: First transitions to vocational training
From 2016: Transitions to upper secondary education
From 2018: Transitions to (technical) college or the early professional phase
To date: Wide-ranging monitoring of young adults' further educational trajectories and recording of educational outcomes

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SC 4 | Grade 9

Launched in 2010 with approximately 16,400 students making the transitions to upper secondary school (institutional sample)
From 2011: First transitions to vocational training
From 2012: Transitions to upper secondary education
From 2015: Transitions to (technical) college or the early professional phase
To date: Monitoring the further educational trajectory, recording lifelong learning and continuing education in adulthood

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SC 5 | Students

Launched in 2010 with approximately 17,900 first-year students (institutional sample)
From 2013: Transitions to the second study phase (master's degree) or early professional phase
From 2015: Graduation and transitions into/in the labor market
To date: Wide-ranging monitoring of lifelong learning and continuing education and recording educational outcomes in adulthood

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SC 6 | Adults

Launched in 2009 with approximately 13,500 participants (individual sample)
2011: Refreshment by about 5,200 respondents
2025: Planned increase in young birth cohorts and refreshment of all birth cohorts up to birth year 1970.
To date: Monitoring lifelong learning and recording educational outcomes into old age

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SC 7 | Early Education

New drawing planned

SC 8 | Grade 5

Launched in 2022 with approximately 6,000 students at the beginning of lower secondary school (institutional sample)
2024: increase of schools and refreshment of students in grade 7
To date: Monitoring the educational trajectory at school

The Multicohort Sequence Design (MKSD)

Using the so-called Multicohort Sequence Design (MKSD), the seven NEPS starting cohorts are arranged in such a way that they cover all educational phases and thus data on the entire life course are available very quickly.

Six of the NEPS starting cohorts were drawn between 2009 and 2012 (SC1-6) to be representative for Germany. In 2022, the NEPS was extended by a new starting cohort: SC8 follows children and adolescents from the 5th grade onwards. In total, the NEPS starting cohorts comprise more than 120,000 people, of which about 70,000 are core individuals who are followed for many years in the NEPS, and about 50,000 are individuals from their environment, e.g., parents or educational professionals.

The participants of the NEPS are usually interviewed closely and tested continuously. They are accompanied on their educational path by the NEPS, even if it divides them into different branches after lower secondary school. As the panel progresses, individual starting cohorts are transferred to wide-meshed monitoring.

This coordinated design, in combination with a coordinated survey program (→ conceptual framework), also makes it possible to distinguish between cohort, age, and period effects for certain questions and points in time.

The NEPS Network: Interdisciplinary Excellence Behind the Data

NEPS Network Partners at Cooperating Research Institutes

The National Educational Panel Study is supported by the expertise of an interdisciplinary consortium of research institutes, groups and individuals. In doing so, the competencies and experiences available in different locations will be linked to provide the scientific community with high-quality longitudinal data on competency developments and educational trajectories in Germany so that fundamental and innovative research questions can be answered.

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The NEPS units

The NEPS network organizes its work via the NEPS units: They comprise eight educational stages, each of which brings the age-specific view into the NEPS, as well as six pillars, which deal with the cross-life-course collection of survey content on the core topics of the NEPS (→ conceptual framework). In addition, units with overarching and fundamental tasks complement the organisational structure of the multi-local network. In general, each of these NEPS units is led by at least one scientific head from among the NEPS network partners, whereby each unit also has an organisational anchorage at LIfBi, from where the NEPS is centrally managed.

Overview

Transfer

Research is being conducted worldwide with the NEPS data resources – numerous publications have already been published since the beginning. For the communication of research results from our own NEPS network, we offer various transfer report series, which are aimed equally at science, journalism, education policy, administration and practice. The series present NEPS analyses with high social relevance in a compact and generally understandable way.

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