The Deputy Director of National Centre for Public Accreditation Dr. Galina Motova participated in the meeting “Three years of independent recognition of foreign education documents: experience, problems, perspectives.”
The seminar was held on 4-6 October 2016 at the Baltic Federal University. Special working group on recognition of foreign education documents and foreign qualifications for the Russian Federal University Network and the Association of the Vice Rectors for International Relations of the Northwest Higher Educational Institutions have initiated the meeting.
29 representatives of 9 Federal Universities, 7 National Research universities and representatives of the governmental and public organizations which deal with the issues of recognition of foreign education and (or) qualifications participated in the meeting.
The outcomes of the discussions can be summarized as follows:
1. Granting the right of independent recognition of foreign education and foreign qualifications to HEIs increases the attractiveness of the Russian Education system. This is due, among other things, to the removal of unjustified obstacles for admission of students and reducing the financial burden on foreign enrollees of the recognition payment, which has led to the growth in the number of foreign students.
2. A three-year experience of universities in independent recognition of foreign education and foreign qualifications, showed an opportunity of organizing such a procedure in every Russian higher educational institution.
At the same time the participants of the meeting pointed out, that the Russian Federation has not yet ratified the Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education, signed in Tokyo on 25 November 2011. The ratification of this Convention would have contributed to the growth of the number of foreign students from the region, strategically important for Russia. Furthermore, according to the participants’ opinions, there is an urgent need to adopt the National Qualifications Framework, which would facilitate a fast qualitative recognition of previous education acquired in more than 100 countries, which have already adopted this document.
