Recognition of higher education degrees across borders

©UNESCO/S.Chayasook

The number of students studying outside their home countries had grown by an astounding 350 percent from 0.8 million in 1975 to 2.8 million in 2007. The percentage of mobile students from East Asia and the Pacific alone was 29 percent, with an additional 9 percent from South and West Asia. Today, two out of every 100 tertiary students are studying abroad. Recognition of their degrees and qualifications is clearly an important issue for governments, institutions, employers and the students alike.

Higher education recognition is a complicated process given the diversification of tertiary institutions and programmes. It requires international cooperation and transparency. As one solution to address these developments, six conventions on mutual recognition of higher education studies and qualifications have been adopted. These legal binding instruments aim to promote and facilitate academic mobility in their respective regions:

•    Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Latin America and the Caribbean (1974).
•    International Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in the Arab and European States bordering on the Mediterranean (1976).
•    Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees concerning Higher Education in the Arab States (1978).
•    Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees and other Academic Qualifications in Higher Education in the African States (1981).
•    Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in Asia and the Pacific (1983).
•    Council of Europe/UNESCO Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (1997).

Changes in the education sector in the past decades necessitate a review of the Conventions to ensure that they are relevant to current and future conditions and needs. UNESCO Bangkok has taken a lead role in revising the Regional Convention for Asia and the Pacific. The draft of the revised Convention is currently being circulated among Member States and will be ready for their endorsement during the International Conference of States (ICS) which will be held in Japan in November this year.

In preparation for the ICS, UNESCO Bangkok and the Australian Government had organized the East Asian Summit (EAS) Meeting on 23-25 June 2011 in Bangkok to raise the awareness of the Member States about the Convention, encourage them to examine the revisions and ratify the Convention if they have not done so yet. About 50 participants from 14 countries attended the Summit.

Mr. Gwang-Jo Kim, Director of UNESCO Bangkok, reiterated the importance of the recognition of qualifications and degrees in an increasingly globalized world, and the relevance to the East Asia region due to its large number of students studying abroad. The Convention is not meant to be a set of strict rules and regulations to which signatories or ratifying nations must adhere. Rather, it provides an essential framework to establish a standardized system for dealing with the recognition of international qualifications.

The Council of Europe/UNESCO Convention – usually referred to as the Lisbon Convention – has been adopted by most European countries. To learn from their experience, Dr. Carita Blomqvist from the Finnish National Board of Education pointed out that a key factor for its wide acceptance lies in giving individual countries sufficient space to define the general clauses of the Convention as they see fit. Another significant outcome is that the burden of proof has been shifted from the applicants to the authorities, which consequently has led to a practice of “first try to recognize, not first try to disqualify.”

The only requirement stated in the Regional Convention for Asia and the Pacific is the establishment of National Information Centres (NICs) in each of the ratifying nations. The NICs will play a crucial role in gathering information about educational programmes, degrees and quality assurance systems in their respective countries and in facilitating the exchange of such information in the region and beyond.

There is still much to be done to encourage more countries in the region to ratify the Convention, but the results will benefit the countries and students, and ultimately enhance the quality of the tertiary education in Asia and the Pacific.

For more information, contact apeid.bgk@unesco.org.