Foreign Degrees and the USA
The bad news: What a mess! That's how I would sum up the accreditation of foreign degrees and credits in the USA. Personally, I feel this stems from a basic, misplaced attitude on the part of US academia (and the U.S. in general?) about the superiority of their educational system versus the rest of the world. I actually had the head of a linguistics program at a no-name state university in the US recently tell me "we'll only consider accepting transfer credits from a U.S. accredited university; we don't even accept credits from Cambridge or Oxford." And there, you have it . . .
Also, there is no single authority in the United States for the recognition of foreign degrees and other qualifications.
The good news: With so many foreign students, job seekers, and now even US veterans and teachers who have foreign degrees, U.S. institutions do regularly evaluate and accredit degrees from abroad.
Here's how it works:
Each government agency, state education board, university/college, or employer decides for themselves how to go about it. They all use outside organizations and private companies to assist them with evaluation. I would say 3 have become the most widely used:
AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) - used by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, they host EDGE (Electronic Database for Global Education).
NAFSA (Association of International Educators, formerly National Association of Foreign Student Advisors) - hosts the Online Guide to Educational Systems around the World.
ECE (Educational Credential Evaluators) - a private company that has been in the business of evaluating foreign programs for decades.
IEE (International Education Evaluations, Inc.) - * This is the one I used in 2020, during Covid. They rapidly gave me an interim evaluation of my M.A. in TESOL from a Korean university based solely on an e-copy of the degree and transcripts, then upgraded it later to a permanent evaluation.
But, there are lots of others; nearly everyone uses someone from NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services):
List of All Foreign Degree Evaluation Organizations: www.naces.org/members.html
Will my Foreign Degree/Program be Accepted?
degree has been evaluated to be equivalent to A's degree but B has more experience, most will go with candidate B.
Also, there is no single authority in the United States for the recognition of foreign degrees and other qualifications.
The good news: With so many foreign students, job seekers, and now even US veterans and teachers who have foreign degrees, U.S. institutions do regularly evaluate and accredit degrees from abroad.
Here's how it works:
Each government agency, state education board, university/college, or employer decides for themselves how to go about it. They all use outside organizations and private companies to assist them with evaluation. I would say 3 have become the most widely used:
AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) - used by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, they host EDGE (Electronic Database for Global Education).
NAFSA (Association of International Educators, formerly National Association of Foreign Student Advisors) - hosts the Online Guide to Educational Systems around the World.
ECE (Educational Credential Evaluators) - a private company that has been in the business of evaluating foreign programs for decades.
IEE (International Education Evaluations, Inc.) - * This is the one I used in 2020, during Covid. They rapidly gave me an interim evaluation of my M.A. in TESOL from a Korean university based solely on an e-copy of the degree and transcripts, then upgraded it later to a permanent evaluation.
But, there are lots of others; nearly everyone uses someone from NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services):
List of All Foreign Degree Evaluation Organizations: www.naces.org/members.html
Will my Foreign Degree/Program be Accepted?
- You will have to pay to have your program/degree evaluated. In the end, it might or might not be granted equivalency to a US degree. Most reputable, foreign programs that involve a similar amount of work will be considered equivalent.
- Ultimately, it's up to the school, government agency, or employer to accept and consider your foreign degree worthy. So in general, I'd say that for jobs, given two equally experienced candidates:
degree has been evaluated to be equivalent to A's degree but B has more experience, most will go with candidate B.
- A valuable resource for deciding if a foreign degree program is worthwhile is the International Handbook of Universities, by IAU (International Association of Universities), or Palgrave Macmillan. See also IAU's World List of Universities and other Institutions of Higher Education. If your school's program is listed, there is a good chance it will be evaluated favorably by an evaluating company or a U.S. university. If not, don't bother.
