RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN

QUALIFICATIONS

EXPERTISE
EXPER
EXPERTISETISE
EXPERTISE
QUALIFICATION RECOGNITION

The ENIC-NARIC France Centre is the national information centre for the academic
recognition of foreign qualifications. Affiliated to the CIEP since 2004, it promotes
international mobility by facilitating the interpretation of academic pathways.
It also actively contributes to the construction of the European Higher Education Area.

HIGHER EDUCATION AND EMPLOYABILITY

The ENIC-NARIC France Centre has implemented a set of
procedures based on the Lisbon Convention to evaluate
foreign qualifications. This enables the centre to issue
comparability certificates, which are useful for supporting job applications (if the profession in question is not
regulated) or for continuing studies in a French higher
education institution.
The ENIC-NARIC France Centre also contributes to the
construction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
and closely follows its developments. It has established
partnerships with higher education institutions and maintains close ties with quality assurance organisations.

It promotes the EHEAs mobility tools (Diploma Supplement, ECTS credits, national and European certification
frameworks, etc.) and participates in the development of
tools supported by EHEA ministries, such as the European
Area of Recognition Manual, which was mentioned in the
2012 Bucharest Communiqu.
The promotion of these mobility tools acts as a support
for vocational integration. The ENIC-NARIC France Centre
collaborates with employers and public administrations to
raise awareness of good practices in the area of qualification recognition, so a given qualification can be appropriately interpreted during recruitment processes and/or entry
examination preparations.

Annual meeting of the

ENIC-NARIC centres,
July 2014.

THE ENIC-NARIC
NETWORK

It also issues expert opinions to ministerial (or inter-ministerial) commissions and centres in the ENIC-NARIC network
on foreign and national academic pathways.

The ENIC-NARIC
France Centre is part
of the international
What is a comparability certificate?
ERIC-NARIC network,
A comparability certificate is an official document that
which comprises 55
establishes an equivalence between a foreign qualificacountries. Created on the
initiative of the European
tion and a level of the French and European certification
Commission, the Council
frameworks. It facilitates the interpretation of internatioof Europe and UNESCO,
nal academic pathways, whether this is to continue ones
this network aims to
studies in a French education institution or to lend the
promote international
qualification weight in the eyes of an employer. In order to
mobility by facilitating
the interpretation of
academic pathways.
It is a leading
partner in the
Belgium
implementation
and the consolidation
815
of the European Higher
Education Area. The
ENIC-NARIC France
Romania
Centre has been the
542
president of this
Italy
network since
579
June 2015.
Spain
Portugal
668

produce comparability certificates, the ENIC-NARIC France

Centre has drawn up an analytical framework using different criteria that uphold the principles of international
texts and the good practices of the ENIC-NARIC network.
The comparative analysis that is undertaken also examines
the individuals academic pathway on a case-by-case basis.
To be eligible for a comparability certificate, training must
last for a minimum of six months on a full-time basis and
lead to a qualification. The ENIC-NARIC France Centre also
issues study and/or training recognition certificates, which
are useful for periods of university study that did not lead
to the award of a qualification.
Russia
646

Distribution
of qualification
recognition requests

832

Tunisia
Morocco
1,741

European
Union 24%

1,338

Algeria

Europe
(non-EU)
16%

Middle East
and North
Africa 32%

3,580

Africa 15%
Asia Pacific 4%

Latin America 4%
North America
5%

Cameroon
518

Members of the team

leading the EU-MTR project
Supporting the use of
mobility tools in qualification
recognition,
CIEP, May 2015.

EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

The ENIC-NARIC France Centre participates in many European and international projects on mobility tools and the
internationalisation of higher education. These projects are
carried out within the framework of European Commission
projects, such as Erasmus+ and the Tempus programme.
They cover different aspects of qualification recognition:
standardising and disseminating good recognition practices
among higher education and public institutions, developing
a quality assurance system based on the norms and directives in force, and establishing qualification recognition
centres in regions outside the European Union. The CIEP
deploys experts as well as members of partner countries to
ensure the development of these projects and their impact
in other regions of the world.

Aim: to train different actors involved in mobility (training

institutions, public administrations, employers, etc.) in
the use of recognition tools that favour the mobility of
students and workers across Europe.

Flagship projects

Tempus RecoNow European Neighbourhood and

Partnership Instrument (ENPI): Disseminating good
practices of foreign qualification recognition in countries
of the South
Partners: University of Bologna, CIMEA Italian ENIC-NARIC Centre, the Ministries of Higher Education of Jordan and
the Palestinian territories.
Aim: to disseminate good practices of foreign qualification
recognition in countries of the South, by establishing a
national recognition and information centre on foreign
qualifications and a university-based recognition centre in
Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

EU-MTR Supporting the use of mobility tools

in qualification recognition
Partners: the project is coordinated by the CIEP in
partnership with the ENIC-NARIC Centres of Croatia,
France, Italy, Latvia and the Netherlands.

Other projects aiming to promote recognition tools and

mobility issues in the countries of Latin America and other
regions of Mediterranean countries are currently being
proposed to the European Commission.

TRAINING
TRAINING
TRAININGCOURSES
TRAINING
QUALIFICATION RECOGNITION

Through training courses, workshops and international conferences,

the ENIC-NARIC France Centre contributes to standardising qualification
recognition good practices, to a better understanding and use of mobility tools,
and to the consolidation of the competencies of its institutional partners.

TRAINING FOR UNIVERSITIES

Against the backdrop of enhanced cooperation with universities, the CIEP has approached university admission
services in order to provide training to enable them to better
interpret foreign students academic pathways. In addition,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development has called upon the ENIC-NARIC France Centre within
the framework of training put in place on the tudes en
France platform, which is aimed at the admissions departments for foreign students. These training sessions aim
to make universities familiar with the tudes en France
platform and what it offers in terms of following up online
registration procedures for CEF-procedure countries1 and
to explain foreign qualification recognition procedures.
Closer collaboration with the CIEP is envisaged to support
universities in the admission of foreign students.
1. Implemented in 33 countries, the CEF procedure is a mechanism that enables
candidates to access study opportunities in France and to receive support
throughout the entire process, from applying for a visa to keeping track of the
advancement of their digital case file.

International conference on the

internationalisation of higher education,
mobility and employability, CIEP, May 2015.

Workshop during
the international
conference on higher
education, mobility
and employability,
CIEP, May 2015.

TRAINING AS PART OF EUROPEAN

AND INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
Training sessions are organised in collaboration with European countries that are partnering within the framework
of the Erasmus+ and Tempus programmes. The EU-MTR
project (Supporting the use of mobility tools in qualification recognition), coordinated by the CIEP, has given
rise to training courses and conferences on mobility tools
for foreign qualification recognition. This training is aimed
at higher education institutions, public administrations
and employers.
The ENIC-NARIC France Centre is participating in the
STREAM project to design and create an online training
platform on qualification recognition procedures, which is
aimed at European higher education institutions.
Lastly, since 2008 the ENIC-NARIC France Centre has taken
part in training organised by the Dutch NARIC Centre, which
is aimed at new qualification evaluators within the network.
In this context, it takes part in producing modules on the
education systems of third countries and the evaluation

of qualifications awarded by education systems in other

regions of the world (outside the ENIC-NARIC network).

TRAINING FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS

AND EMPLOYERS
The ENIC-NARIC France Centre is called upon by public
administrations and employers to provide support in interpreting and evaluating foreign qualifications. These requests are generally made in the context of recruitment or
examination procedures.

Examples:
Nursing training institutes (Instituts de formation des
soins infirmiers, IFSI): supporting the evaluation of the
level of training of students who completed their studies
abroad and wish to take the nursing entry examination.
Versailles Local Education Authority (Rectorat de
Versailles): supporting procedures for recruiting teachers
who completed their studies abroad, in order to better
understand their academic pathway.

RecoNow project,
CIEP, September 2014.

RESOURCES
RESOUR
RESOURCESCES
RESOURCES
QUALIFICATION RECOGNITION

Drawing on its expertise, the ENIC-NARIC France Centre publishes studies

aimed at its institutional partners and the ENIC-NARIC network. It also
manages a database that offers tools to process requests to recognise foreign
qualifications both reliably and effectively.

THE STUDIES
As part of the European projects that it coordinates or partners, the ENIC-NARIC France
Centre produces project appraisals and reports. It has recently published a report on
the QFS-UHSE project (Use or potential use
of certification frameworks as a mobility tool
by higher education institutions and other
actors), as well as the final report on the
project entitled The use of the EQF in recognition procedures of the NARIC Centres, and the report
on the Diploma Supplement.

Key facts
about our database
Over

6,000

accredited institutions
Over

2,000

evaluated qualifications

In addition, the ENIC-NARIC France Centre initiated a

study, published by and for the ENIC-NARIC network, on
the networks cooperation with other regions around the
world. Initiated in 2010 and revised in 2015, this study
analyses the migratory flows of students across the world,
based primarily on statistical data from UNESCO and the
OECD. It also presents the number of recognition requests
broken down by country and recognition centre.
This data has been used to implement a number of actions
to reinforce cooperation with other regions of the world
(Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, etc.) and to enable a better recognition of qualifications awarded in these regions.

The ENIC-NARIC France Centre database

The CIEP has created a database to reflect its decade-long experience in qualification recognition. This
database is aimed at higher education institutions, employers and administrative bodies.
Unique in France, this database compares the French national certification system with the European
Certification System (CES) for all foreign qualifications evaluated by the CIEP over the last 10 years.
It also includes a list of all the recognised and accredited education institutions in the world that have
been identified by the CIEP. Finally, the database contains country fiches that provide an explicatory
overview of certain education systems, including qualification templates, in order to better guide
users in their research.
Institutional partners, notably higher education institutions, can access the database on a
subscription basis.

Created in 1945, the CIEP is an institution of the French Ministry of National

Education, Higher Education and Research.
Its missions, which are part of the governments international cooperation
priorities, centre on three areas of activity:
cooperation in the areas of education, professional training and the quality of higher education;
support for the promotion of the French language around the world by training teachers and
education managers and by issuing certifications in French;
international mobility for people through language assistant and teacher exchange programmes,
as well as the issuing of foreign qualification comparability certificates.
To carry out its projects, the CIEP relies on the know-how of a team of 250 staff as well as on a
network of over 1,000 experts and national and international partners.

Centre international dtudes pdagogiques

1, avenue Lon-Journault - 92318 Svres cedex - France

Phone: 33 (0)1 45 07 60 00

www.ciep.fr
Member of Sorbonne University

CIEP -Development and Communication Department - January 2016