Higher
education in Belgium
Chantal Kaufmann,
Deputy General Director, Higher Education and Research,
Head of Naric describes the procedure for the assessment
of foreign higher education qualifications in the French
Community of Belgium.
Authorities
for Academic Recognition
The authority
for the academic recognition of foreign higher education
qualifications in the French Community of Belgium is shared,
according to the law, between the Ministry of Education
and the institutions of higher education themselves.
The applications
are initially addressed by the applicants to the National
Academic Recognition Centre (NARIC) within the Ministry
of Education
The procedure.
1. Receipt
of the application:
To be taken into
consideration, the application has to be submitted in written
form. To facilitate the procedure and to make it more transparent,
some general information is given to the applicants, a standardised
document explaining both the procedure and the criteria
for the assessment of the qualification, and the possibility
of appeal where applicable.
Apart from the
application form, which explains the purpose of the demand,
several documents are required: certificate of nationality;
certified copy of the diploma; certified copy of the academic
transcript in the original language; sworn translations
of the diploma and the academic transcript; an official
document of the issuing institution stating the entrance
requirements for the study programme in question; certified
curriculum of accomplished higher education studies (including,
at least, a short description and the study load of each
course taken) and a translation; a copy of the thesis, project
of final work, accompanied by a summary in French.
2. Verification
of the competent authority:
In order to determine
the competent authority in each individual case, the following
elements are taken into consideration:
i. The purpose of the application: To follow
further studies, look for a job (de facto professional recognition),
access to a regulated profession (de jure professional recognition),
and to fix a scale of income.
ii. The level of the diploma: higher education
outside university, university education diploma, other
(secondary, vocational);
iii. To establish if the application falls
into the context of a European directive (professional recognition:
regulated professions).
If the applicant
wishes to follow further studies, we direct them to a higher
education institution (university or outside university,
according to his diploma).
3. Verification
as to whether the issuing institution is recognized in the
original country as belonging to its system of higher education.
If the institution
is completely private, not recognized by the state where
the qualification has been delivered, the application, according
to the regulation, can't be taken into consideration. If
the institution is recognized, the qualifications from every
country of the world are taken into consideration.
4. Verification
of whether or not the qualification is authentic
- If we do notice
any falsification, the procedure is stopped and we keep
the file and the application for eventual legal proceedings.
Regarding the
translation: It has to be done by a sworn translator established
in Belgium.
5. Assessment
of the foreign qualifications.
Academic recognition
The general rule
is that the higher education institutions make the decisions
regarding the recognition of part of the degree and the
recognition of period of studies, when applicants wish to
continue their studies at the institution concerned, and
that the Ministry of Education makes the decisions on full
recognition, mainly for professional purposes.
The
higher education institutions and the Ministry have to take
into consideration the following criteria:
