Assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications in Estonia

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

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

9. 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)

10. 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)

11. 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

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

13. 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

14. Qualificatons assessed at the Estonian ENIC/NARIC

15. Applications 2015 • 2047applications (from98countries) • RussianFederation 296applications • Ukraine266 • Nigeria 195 • Former USSR 156 • United Kingdom 102 • India 78 • Bangladesh 76 • Finland 68 • USA 60 • Turkey56

16. Inquiries at the Estonian ENIC/NARIC

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

18. Inquiries 2015 • Informationrequestabout: • General (recognition, Bologna, etc)443inquiries • Estonia 433 • UnitedKingdom 140 • Russia70 • USA 34 • Finland 34 • The Netherlands33 • Denmark 28 • Germany19 • Sweden 19

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

20. 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.

21. 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)

22. 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

23. Thank you!