The standard Registratie Instellingen en Opleiding (RIO) is a canonical model describing educational institutions in relation to the education they offer, how they offer it and where they offer it and by which party it is recognaized. The standard, consisting of a set of canonical models, provides insight into a number of core objects (education boards, education providers, education locations, educational units, course characteristics and courses offered) in the education domain with their properties and relationships. These models form the basis for filling in the information needs with regard to these objects in all kinds of education-related processes, including funding, absenteeism, supervision and accountability. This information need almost always has to do with 4 perspectives, namely WHO (incl. WITH WHOM), WHERE, WHAT and HOW.

The standard contains a canonical Model RIO Generic. In addition to this generic model, there are also canonical models RIO for the various education sectors: • Canonical model RIO primary education (bo) • Canonical model RIO special education and secondary special education (so and vso) • Canonical model RIO secondary education (vo) • Canonical model RIO vocational education (MBO) • Canonical model RIO secondary education for adults (vavo) • Canonical model RIO higher education (ho) • Canonical model RIO non-formal education (nfo)