How to join TALIS

TALIS has finished recruiting countries and territories interested in participating in its current data collection cycle in 2024 (TALIS 2024). Applications to participate in the next cycle of TALIS (TALIS 2030) will be considered upon receipt of an official letter informing the OECD of a country/territory’s desire to participate in TALIS, including confirmation of its intention to contribute to the international costs. For the next cycle, interested countries or territories should get in touch with the TALIS Secretariat (contact edutaliscontact@oecd.org) in 2025-26 to receive information on the participation process.

The fourth cycle of the study, TALIS 2024, entails a working period commitment of six years (2021-26), as preparations start well before survey administration and reporting of results takes place about a year later. Countries and territories interested in joining TALIS are expected to fulfil the following requirements:

• Contribute to the international costs of the survey.
• Cover national implementation costs.
• Nominate a representative for the TALIS Governing Board (TGB): This board is represented by all participating countries and territories at senior policy levels and is responsible for specifying the policy priorities and standards for the development of indicators, establishment of survey instruments, and the reporting of results. The TGB meets about twice a year – usually February/March and October/November. Participation in the TGB for non-OECD countries and territories is optional.
• Appoint a national project manager (NPM) to carry out the surveys in the national context: The national project managers work with the OECD contractor on all issues related to the implementation of TALIS in their country or territory. NPMs play a vital role in ensuring that TALIS is a high-quality project with results that can be verified and evaluated following OECD quality standards. They can also play an important role in the development and review of TALIS reports and publications, in consultation with their respective TGB member.

Other tasks for participating countries and territories:

• Take responsibility for drawing a representative sample of schools and teachers in compliance with the internationally agreed target population definitions and sampling procedures. In TALIS 2018, the field trial included a sample of approximately 30 schools and 600 teachers and the main study a sample of approximately 200 schools and 4 000 teachers.
• Have the authority and resources to recruit schools to participate and to administer the survey following a computer-based delivery system. Paper-based implementation might be an option at the request of participants and based on their capacity to manage printed materials.
• Oversee and cover the costs of translation and adaptation of the questionnaire and deal with related issues.
• Have the capacity for data collection, processing, quality assurance and reporting progress to the consortium.

It is too early to provide costs for the next full cycle. To note, in addition to participation in the main survey (i.e. lower secondary schools), there are additional costs for for participation in any optional modules.

Participants from the EU/EEA should be aware of the possibility of financial support by the European Commission for the cost of participation in the main survey.

In addition to the above international costs, the costs for the national implementation of the programme are borne entirely by participants. Participants are also required to cover the costs for international travel to attend the TALIS Governing Board meetings (optional for partner countries and territories) and the national project manager meetings.