Procedure for recognition of foreign educational documents (formerly called “nostrification”) is aimed to ensure the rights of citizens, who received education in other states, for continuing education and / or professional activity in Ukraine. Such the procedure та is carried out on an individual basis.

Recognition of foreign education documents in Ukraine is carried out in full accordance with Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region, ratified by the corresponding Law of Ukraine of December 03, 1999 № 1273-XIV, as well as with the recommendations of this Convention.

After the recognition procedure, the holder of foreign educational documents receives a certificate confirming the right of the holder of documents, issued by the educational institution of another state, to continue education or job in a higher educational institution of Ukraine or in enterprises throughout all Ukraine. The issuance of such certificate is carried out on the basis of a decision of the competent authority – a higher educational institution or the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

The procedure for recognizing foreign educational documents includes: authentication of documents, confirmation of the status of an educational institution and / or educational program, appraisal of qualifications or period of study, and the establishment of equivalence to educational or educational professional level in Ukraine, academic and / or professional rights.

The procedure for recognition of foreign documents on education has been substantially reformed in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education”. There is a normative act that regulates the procedure of recognition in Ukraine by all competent authorities –  Order  of MES dated May 5, 2015 № 504, registered at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine of  May 27, 2015  № 614/27059. On this day there was introduced the procedure for recognizing the degrees of higher education obtained in foreign higher educational institutions and documents on secondary, secondary vocational and vocational education.

DOCUMENTS not to be REQUIREd A RECOGNITION PROCEDURE IN UKRAINE 

Documents on the education of citizens of the former USSR issued before May 15, 1992 (based on the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Education (Tashkent, 1992)). The member states of the agreement are: Azerbaijan Republic, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Armenia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Republic of Uzbekistan.

REASONS FOR DISCLAIMER

A decision to refuse recognition of a submitted document shall be taken by the competent authority in case of:

  1. documents issued by those educational institutions that are not officially recognized in the education system of the state in which they operate;
  2. documents issued by branches of educational institutions, if such branches are not officially recognized in the education system of the state where they carry out educational activities of this branch, in case it is according to law of foreign state;
  3. documents do not include information on getting higher education, professional specialization or occupational retraining as well as the periods of study with rendering academic and/or professional rights (continuing education and / or graduate employability);
  4. documents are illegally issued by an educational institution of another state;
  5. documents are not authentic;
  6. documents are issued according to the results of training for a period less than one academic year of study;
  7. documents are issued based on the learning outcomes but the total amount of educational loans is less than 30 loans from  the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) (or less than equivalent number of academic hours);
  8. documents are not up to stated standard of processing academic credentials, if and to the extent, there is the  acceptable standard in the state where  such educational institutions function;
  9. documents are issued based on the learning outcomes after educational program, which is not  corresponded any stage of higher education, professional specialization or direction of education (specialty, qualification) in the education system in Ukraine;
  10. documents are not recognized in the state to which the educational institution belongs;
  11. documents do not contain complete information on the contents of the curriculum and in such cases it is impossible to estimate the equivalence of the higher education, professional specialization or qualification given in such the documents to the education system of Ukraine;
  12. an education document was obtained on the basis of a non-authentic document on the previous education;
  13. an education document was obtained on the basis of a document on prior education that did not provide the holder with the relevant academic rights (unless otherwise provided by the law of the country of origin of the education document

The applicant submits the following documents regardless of which competent authority performs the recognition procedure:

  1. Copies and translations of a foreign educational document in Ukrainian (in case of need the original is submitted) certified in accordance with the procedure established by law;
  2. Copies  and the appendix to this document translated into Ukrainian and / or other documents containing information about curriculum certified in accordance with the procedure established by law (in case of need the originals are submitted);
  3. The documents referred to in subparagraphs 1 and 2 shall be officially certified in the country of origin (for documents from the countries – parties to the Convention, which cancels the requirement of legalization of foreign official documents (Hague, 1961) – only the Apostille stamp is required);
  4. In the event the documents are not officially certified in the country of issue or if the certificate does not certify their authenticity, the competent authority shall take measures to confirm the authenticity of such documents;
  5. copies of documents on the previous (secondary, vocational or higher) education if such education was received (if necessary);
  6. copies of documents certifying the identity of the Applicant and the owner, if the owner is not the Applicant (translated into Ukrainian if necessary);
  7. application request or the recognition procedure;
  8. a letter of consent from the holder of the documents for the processing of his/her personal data in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Personal Data”.

An applicant can also submit other documents confirming the education and/or qualification of the holder, documents on admission to professional activities, and practical experience (translated into Ukrainian if necessary).

An applicant may submit the documents specified in subparagraphs 1-6 of this paragraph to the competent authority in electronic format as digital images.

If necessary, the competent authority checks the conformity of the digital images, mentioned in subparagraphs 1-4 of this point, to the originals and / or copies of the documents translated.

If the documents submitted by the Applicant are not fully and / or incorrectly drawn up, the competent authority may return the documents without consideration within 10 working days from the date of registration of the application. The applicant receives a notification indicating the shortcomings to be corrected.

General information:  http://enic.in.ua/index.php/ua/

Regulatory framework:
1. The Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education” of 01.07.2014 № 1556-VII

http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1556-18

  1. Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 31, 2015, No. 193 “On Documents on Higher Education (Scientific Degrees) of the State Standard”

http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/193-2015-%D0%BF

  1. Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated April 29, 2015 No. 266 “On Approval of the List of Fields of Knowledge and Specialties under which Higher Education Institutions are Prepared”

http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/ru/cardnpd?docid=248149695

  1. Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated May 12, 2015, No. 525 “On Approval of Forms of Documents on Higher Education (Scientific Degrees) of the State Standard and Appendices thereto, Model of Academic Reference”

http://zakon0.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0551-15

  1. Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated May 05, 2015, No. 504 “Some issues of recognition in Ukraine of foreign educational documents”

http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0614-15

  1. Letter of the Ukrainian State Center for International Education of the Ministry of Education of 27.05.2016 № 84

Apostille and recognition of education documents:

МОН: http://mon.gov.ua/activity/poslugi/apostil/apostil1.html

State Enterprise “Information and Image Center”: http://apostille.in.ua/ua/pro-apostil-ua