Assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications in Estonia

Assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications in Estonia Gunnar Vaht Estonian ENIC/NARIC 2016

Legislation Lisbon Recognition Convention Act (1998) ratification Education Act (1992) mandate for recognition of foreign qualifications Recognition of Foreign Professional Qualifications Act (2008) recognition of regulated professions, competent authorities Correspondence of qualifications issued in the Republic of Estonia and qualifications issued in former USSR prior to 20. 08. 1991 (Government Regulation, 2005) recognition and correspondence of Soviet qualifications Regulations concerning the assessment and academic recognition of foreign educational qualifications and the use of the names of foreign qualifications (Government Regulation, 2006) Implementation of Lisbon Recognition Convention

Governement Regulation (2006) Subjects of the Regulation Assessment and recognition principles General consideration, definitions, applicant, purpose of assessment and recognition, etc Nomination of competent assessment authorities Estonian ENIC/NARIC (not obligatory, HEI/employer may assess in case they have knowledge and experience) Nomination of competent recognition authorities HEI or employer Role and tasks of the Estonian ENIC/NARIC Assessment of foreign qualifications, comparision and recommendation Principles, criteria and procedure on assessment of foreign (and transnational) higher education qualifications, qualifications giving access to higher education and periods of study See the Estonian ENIC/NARIC activities Use of the name of foreign educational degrees (titles, and other qualifications) Right to use original title or in transliteration

Bilateral and regional recognition agreements Agreement among the Governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the academic recognition of access and higher education qualifications in the Baltic Educational Space (2000) Agreement between the Governements of Estonia and Ukraine on the recognition of education documents and research degrees (1996) Agreement between the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia and the Ministry of the People´s Republic of China on mutual recognition of higher education qualifications (2015)

Government Regulation (2006) Was developed to cover most of the LRC and its subsidiary texts (recommendations) Recommendation on the Criteria and Procedures for the Assessment of Foreign Qualifications and Periods of Study Recommendation on the Recognition of Joint Degrees Code of Good Practice in the Provision of Transnational Education

Assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications Criteria and procedure Regulated by Government Regulation Developed on the basis of the Recommendation on Criteria and Procedures (LRC subsidiary text) Content: Who may apply The purpose of assessment Required documents Assessment procedure Criteria The outcome of the assessment – corresponding Estonian qualification Status of the evaluation report Fees (free of charge) Application processing deadlines (30 days) Appealing

Application – required documents Applicant (holder of qualification) – application form HEI or employer – annexed to the letter Required documents: ID document diploma/certificate (original or certified copy) transcript/DS and/or other document(s) annexed to the diploma/certificate (original or certified copy) translation (except English, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarus (and Finnish in some cases)) Applicant receives an information sheet on assessment and recognition criteria and procedures

Assessment criteria (1) Awarding institution Level Type Accreditation Recognition status

Assessment criteria (2) Qualification Level (cycle) of qualifiation in the national education system (qualifications framework) Access qualification (previous education) Quality (accreditation) Workload and/or nominal duration Profile – Field of study and content (Grades) (Graduation requirements) Learning outcomes (if applicable) Function of qualification (formal rights in home country, access to next cycle or level)

From input to outcomes Assessment criteria (most important criteria taken into account for comparison) Until 2006 Duration; graduation requirments; list of courses/moduls; specialisation; practice; theory; type of institution; profile 2006 -2012 Workload; level; profile; quality Since 2012 Formal right (function of the qualification / competence / access to next cycle)

Outcome of assessment Comparision and corresponding qualification in Estonian system (corresponding foreign qualification have the same formal rights as the holders of Estonian qualification) The Estonian ENIC/NARIC evaluation report (statement). This statement is valid to all HEIs and employers in Estonia (national level) HEI or employer may also assess (valid only within the institution, not binding) Final recognition decision – HEI or employer

Estonian ENIC/NARIC activities __________________ Gunnar Vaht Estonian ENIC/NARIC Gunnar. vaht@archimedes. ee 2016

Main tasks Information provision (educational systems – foreign countries; former USSR; Estonia) Assessment of foreign qualifications Contact point for professional recognition Improvement of recognition system in Estonia Participation on international recognition networks

Qualificatons assessed at the Estonian ENIC/NARIC

Applications 2015 2047 applications (from 98 countries) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Russian Federation Ukraine Nigeria Former USSR United Kingdom India Bangladesh Finland USA Turkey 296 applications 266 195 156 102 78 76 68 60 56

Inquiries at the Estonian ENIC/NARIC

About institution About programme, nominal duration and qualification Grading scale used Reference to Est NQF and comparison Recommendation and corresponding qualification in Estonian system

Inquiries 2015 Information request about: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. General (recognition, Bologna, etc) 443 inquiries Estonia 433 United Kingdom 140 Russia 70 USA 34 Finland 34 The Netherlands 33 Denmark 28 Germany 19 Sweden 19

Partnership with national institutions/organisations Ministry of Education and Research – state loan for study abroad Estonian Higher Education Quality Agency – checking of teaching staff qualifications in the process of quality assessment Defence Resources Agency – information provision about foreign educational institutions

Updated information prepared by the Estonian ENIC/NARIC Estonian education system Estonian Higher Education Qualifications Framework Higher Education Institutions in Estonia Accredited study programmes and programme groups Vocational and Professional Secondary Education Qualifications of Estonia since 1991 How to use degree titles and titles of other qualifications (in CV, etc) – Guidelines Educational credentials of the Republic of Estonia and the former Soviet Union. Correspondence of former qualifications. A user´s guide.

Training courses Regular training courses in Estonia for Estonian HEIs and other target groups International training courses and missions (most recent) - TAIEX mission in Montenegro (2011) TAIEX mission in Israel (2013 and 2015) EAIE Academy (2013 and 2014) Training course in Italy (2015)

International working groups andprojects Global Convention Experts´ Group (UNESCO) – since 2014 ASEM Recognition Working Group – since 2011 Bologna Pathfinder group on automatic recognition (European Commission) - 2014 AURBELL – Automatic Recognition between Estonian, Latvia and Lithuania (a project financed by EC) Nordic-Baltic working group on automatic recognition – 2014 -2016

Thank you!