ABOUT RECOGNITION
For a foreign educational document to become valid in Ukraine for further employment or further studies, you must go through the recognition process for your educational documents (nostrification).
Nostrification recognizes a foreign educational document as equivalent to a national document in a particular country. In other words, it is an official confirmation that your education obtained abroad meets the academic standards of the country where you want to work, study, or continue your education.
The procedure for recognizing foreign documents must be completed in the first year of study, for postgraduate students, 4 months from enrollment.
How does it work?
- Submission of documents – diploma, diploma supplement, translations, passport, etc..
- Notarization of documents;
- Analysis by the competent authority (Ministry of Education or Special Centre);
- Additional certification – passing exams, passing courses;
- Obtaining a decision on recognition or refusal.
Documents for nostrification
The following documents are required for nostrification:
- Application for the recognition procedure;
- Original documents (with the Apostille and legalized by the legislative norms of the country in which the document was issued);
- Notarized translations of educational documents with simultaneous certification of notarized copies.
- Copies of documents on previous education;
- A copy of the document proving the identity of the owner of the documents;
After preparing and submitting a package of documents for nostrification, the Ministry may decide to fully or partially recognize the equivalence of papers or to refuse to recognize the equivalence of documents in education.
The result of the recognition procedure may be:
1. Recognition, based on which the Certificate of Recognition of a foreign document on education is issued.
Suppose additional conditions (additional training, testing for competence, or other actions, the failure of which makes it impossible to continue education or employment in the specialty in Ukraine) are defined for recognition of the qualification of the owner of educational documents. In that case, the applicant is sent a notice.
In this case, the owner of educational documents must pass exams in the academic disciplines that experts indicate. He independently chooses a higher education institution for testing, after which the Center’s employees will help organize the examination in the chosen educational institution. The terms of the procedure for recognizing documents in this case are extended until the Center receives positive test results.
2. Refusal to recognize the submitted educational document, about which the applicant is sent a notice indicating the grounds for making such a decision.
As a result of the recognition procedure, the owner of foreign documents on education receives a certificate confirming the right of the owner of documents issued by an educational institution of another state to continue education or to work in a specialty in Ukraine.
The Certificate of recognition in Ukraine of a foreign educational document is as follows:
It should be noted that not all documents are subject to the recognition procedure in Ukraine. These include:
- documents issued by educational institutions that are not officially recognized (accredited) in the educational system of the state to which they belong;
- documents issued by branches of educational institutions, if such branches are not officially recognized in the education system of the state in whose territory they conduct educational activities;
- documents that do not contain information about the receipt by the owner of documents of a specific educational or educational qualification level, professional specialization, or professional retraining;
- documents illegally issued by an educational institution of another state;
- inauthentic documents;
- documents that do not meet the officially approved standard of registration of documents on education, if such a standard is adopted in the state to which the educational institution belongs;
- documents issued as a result of training under the program, which cannot be correlated with any educational or educational qualification level, and/or direction of training (specialty, qualification) of the education system of Ukraine;
- documents that are not recognized in the state to which the educational institution belongs;
- documents that do not contain sufficient information on the content of the curriculum, which makes it impossible to establish the equivalence of the qualifications assigned under these documents to the educational qualification level of the education system of Ukraine.
Validation
Validation is carried out by the institution entrusted with the National Information Center for Academic Mobility functions, or by the admission (selection) committee of the institution of professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher, or higher education. It involves checking the correctness of the documents and the foreigner’s right to enter an educational institution for training under the professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher or higher education program in the country of origin of the document.
A document on the degree (level) of education obtained by a foreigner abroad, based on which admission is made, and a supplement to it (if the presence of a supplement is provided for by the legislation of the country of origin of the document); an academic certificate issued by a foreign/Ukrainian institution of professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher, higher education (in case of transfer or renewal of studies starting from the second year); are considered to have successfully passed the validation procedure, provided that they meet the following criteria:
- The document does not originate from states not recognized by Ukraine and territories with limited recognition.
- The document is not issued based on periods of study in states not recognized by Ukraine and/or territories with limited recognition.
- The document certifies the completion of education at a level of education sufficient for enrollment in the relevant educational program (according to preliminary analysis);
- The document complies with the official standard for the design of a document certifying the completion of a certain level of education, if the country of origin provides for such a standard.
- The appendix to the document on professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher, higher education contains information about the specialty, educational program, direction, list of disciplines (in particular, professional), the number of hours of academic disciplines (or their equivalent);
- The document contains the necessary signatures of authorized persons, including electronic ones, seals, etc., provided for in the form of the document.
- The document does not contain any unqualified corrections, erasures, or additions; the document’s text is legible and undamaged; the document does not include information about negative results of compulsory exams.
- The document is certified by consular legalization or affixing an apostille (for countries that are parties to the Convention abolishing the requirement for legalization of foreign official documents) (if necessary).
Based on the results of the analysis of the conformity (validation) of the education document, the institution entrusted with the functions of the National Information Center for Academic Mobility, or the admission (selection) commission of the institution of professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher, higher education prepares a conclusion on its results (hereinafter referred to as the conclusion), which is entered into the Unified System.
The conclusion issued by the admissions (selection) committee of a professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher, higher education institution is valid only for this professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher, higher education institution. The conclusion issued by the institution entrusted with the functions of the National Information Center for Academic Mobility is valid for all professional (vocational-technical), professional pre-higher, and higher education institutions in the territory of Ukraine.
The conclusion must be available to users of the Unified System by the time they receive the electronic invitation.
For consultation and further actions, scan the QR code:
