Credential Evaluation: Making Your Achievements Visible
Backpackers planning to continue their education may need to have their university transcripts and diplomas evaluated by professional international credential evaluators.
What is credential evaluation?
Systems of higher education around the world have different requirements for admissions. They also have different ways of awarding credit for work done. Credential evaluation is a way for an expert to look at your transcript and other kinds of academic documentation and figure out what kind of credit you might get for it in the other system. If you qualify for evaluation, a credential evaluator will examine your documents and write a report that you may store in your Backpack and share as you need to. This report will be a detailed analysis of your work and what its equivalent would be in a different educational system.
Why is credential evaluation important?
Credential evaluation, alongside other things in your Backpack can help admissions officers, scholarship providers and even employers understand the work you have already done towards your education. This will give them the opportunities to make better-informed and more fair decisions about admitting you to university, awarding you scholarships and offering you employment.
What if I don’t have all my documents or I don’t have official copies?
Not having all of your educational documents or official copies is a common problem amongst young people who have fled their countries or faced other kinds of hardship. Credential evaluators can often use elements of your record, including information you have entered in the Backpack about universities and schools you have attended in the past to reconstruct your academic history. To begin the process of reconstruction, you must have at least one document issued by an educational institution. When the process is completed, the credential evaluator will give you a report.
Does a university have to accept or recognize the reports by credential evaluators?
No. The reports made by the credential evaluators are an expert recommendation to universities. The universities will still use their own standards and judgement before accepting those evaluations and other materials. In our experience, many universities use these evaluations in making decisions. Credential evaluation is an important and powerful tool in helping empower you to connect or reconnect with higher education.
Requirements for requesting credential evaluation:
In general Backpackers with the following needs and qualifications will be eligible
1. Must have evidence of intent to access higher education:
- has identified a subject of study
- has identified possible institutions
- has identified possible support avenues/scholarships
2. Requires assessment for employment or licensure
- has a technical diploma/ associate degree/ certificate of licensed assistant necessary to enter the labor market
- has a university degree that allows for professional practice (medicine, engineering, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, law and others)
Note: Backpackers holding refugee status in a European Union country are not eligible as specific initiatives in the European Union for university access (European Qualification Passport for Refugees and the Academic Pass) currently exist.
If you have any questions about your eligibility or need for credential evaluation, please contact the Backpack
Article26Backpack@ucdavis.edu or Article26Backpack@aub.edu.lb
Backpackers will be able to request evaluation by contacting the Backpack – article26backpack@ucdavis.edu