Rules of the recognition of qualifications for further studies

Treaty on mutual recognition with the Czech Republic

The Treaty between the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic on the mutual recognition of the equivalence of educational qualifications issued in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic ("the Treaty") is the only bilateral agreement in the field of recognition of educational qualifications signed at the presidential level. The Agreements signed at presidential level take precedence over the national law in the provisions concerning rights and obligations. The Treaty has therefore completely removed the process of academic recognition. Holders of Czech educational documents can therefore use them in the Slovak Republic for all purposes, except for the exercise of a regulated profession, without a recognition process.

• Text of the Treaty between the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic on the mutual recognition of the equivalence of educational documents issued in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic

The Treaty entered into force on 28 March 2015 in accordance with Article 14 and was published in the Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic as Notification of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic No. 60/2015 Coll. - Treaty between the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic on the mutual recognition of the equivalence of educational qualifications issued in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic.
 
According to Article 1, the treaty applies to all graduates of Czech primary, secondary and higher education institutions and for all purposes, except for recognition for the pursuit of regulated professions (health professionals, teachers, regulated trades, etc.)

This means that for all purposes (except for the exercise of a regulated profession), a document of education issued by a Czech university or secondary school is valid in the Slovak Republic automatically, without recognition. In the case of mobility between the Czech and Slovak Republics, the applicant may apply to study at a Slovak or Czech school without having to undergo a process of recognition.

This has also simplified the recording of the degree into the identity document. A graduate can have his or her degree entered on the ID card or passport without recognition of the diploma. He or she can do so directly at the documents department of the District Police Headquarters, under the same conditions as graduates of Slovak higher education institutions.

At the same time, recognition of education cannot be required for the exercise of an unregulated profession, i.e. most professions on the labour market without a statutory qualification for the exercise of the profession.

Scope of the Treaty

In the case of documents acquired on the territory of the Czech Republic, we distinguish the following two periods of acquisition of documents:

• Czechoslovakia (ČSSR and ČSFR) - documents acquired before 31.12.1992 are automatically valid and are not subject to recognition in the successor states; and
• the independent Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (since 1.1.1993).

The scope of the treaty applies to educational documents acquired on the territory of the independent Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic. The Treaty maintains continuity between the periods before and after the signing of the Treaty and will apply to all documents acquired under the title of the Czech Republic and on the territory of the Czech Republic, i.e. since 1993. 

 

 

 

 

Bilateral government level agreements on mutual recognition of qualifications

The Slovak Republic has concluded bilateral agreements on the mutual recognition of educational qualifications at governmental level with the following countries:

• Hungary
• Germany (the agreement applies to education documents issued after 13 December 2003)
• Croatia
• Poland (agreement of 2006) / (agreement of 2016)
• Romania
• Ukraine
• Russia (in force as from 1 July 2020, the agreement applies to educational qualifications whose exact titles are mentioned therein, regardless of the date of issue - it does not apply to older pre-Bologna 'Diplom' qualifications)
• China (the agreement applies to educational qualifications issued after 1 September 2020)

All higher education and upper-secondary education qualifications that are part of the above bilateral government agreements have been included in the automatic recognition system as of 1.3.2025. Please use the recognition clause to prove the level of education attained. The clause, together with the education document to which it is linked, fully replaces the recognition of the degree of education under international agreements (Section 39 of Act No. 422/2015 Coll. on the Recognition of Education Documents and on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications and on Amendments and Additions to Certain Acts, as amended).

The clause applies only to the recognition of the degree of education attained. In the event that the qualification is submitted to a university for the purpose of recognition of a qualification in a specific study field, a reduced administrative fee (EUR 7) applies to the application for recognition of a document falling under one of the above-mentioned bilateral agreements.

Multilateral international agreements on recognition of qualifications

The Slovak Republic has acceded to the two most important conventions in the field of recognition of qualifications, which guarantee the holders of educational documents from the signatory states and reciprocally also the holders of Slovak educational documents the basic rights related to recognition for the continuation of studies, such as:

• the right to a fair assessment of qualifications within a reasonable time
• the right to recognition of the educational document, unless a substantial difference is demonstrated
• to be able to apply for access to higher education, for jobs in the labour market or to use an academic degree
• the right to appeal against the outcome of a recognition decision, and others

Lisbon Recognition Convention, 1997
(in force since 1999)

The Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications relating to Higher Education in the European Region was developed in cooperation between the Council of Europe and UNESCO and signed in Lisbon on 11 April 1997. It entered into force for the Slovak Republic on 21 June 1999 (Notification of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic No. 145/2000 Coll.) The Convention established the basis for the recognition of qualifications in the wider European region (or the European Higher Education Area), including the principles and institutes relating to the recognition of qualifications in the context of continuing studies. It also established a network of Academic Recognition Information Centres (ENICs).

A network of NARICs (National Academic Recognition Information Centres) had already existed within the European Union. Together they form the ENIC-NARIC network with a number of joint activities and initiatives. The ENIC-NARIC portal contains useful information on national higher education and academic recognition systems.

Further links related to the Lisbon Recognition Convention:

• General information on the Convention
• Text of the Convention SK / EN
• States of the Convention
• Contacts to the information centres under the Convention

Global Recognition Convention, 2019
(in force since 2023)

The UNESCO Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications related to Higher Education integrates regional conventions, including the Lisbon Recognition Convention, and extends the scope of the principles of the regional conventions to the global level. On 29 June 2022, the Slovak Republic became the sixteenth state in total to ratify this Convention. The Convention entered into force on 5 March 2023 (Notification of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic No. 218/2023 Coll.) From that date, the rights and obligations in relation to the first twenty signatory States apply; for each additional State, the Convention enters into force three months after the deposit of the instruments of ratification. As this is a relatively new Convention, individual states are still in the process of ratification, an up-to-date list of signatory states is available below.

Links in relation to the Global Recognition Convention:

• General information on the Convention
• Text of the Convention SK / EN
• States Parties to the Convention
• Contacts of the information centres under the Convention (select first the region and then the country)

ARAQUA project

In the period between December 2022 and November 2024, the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic, Centre for Recognition of Diplomas, participated in the project titled “Road to Automatic Recognition of Higher Education Access Qualifications” (ARAQUA) with the aim to research the access qualifications in partner countries and to adopt recommendations for the recognition authorities leading to their automatic recognition.

The project partners:

• Academic Information Centre (coordinator), Latvia
• Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science, Denmark
• Education and Youth Board, Estonia
• Information Centre on Academic Mobility and Equivalence, Italy
• Malta Qualifications Recognition Information Centre, Malta
• National Centre for Recognition and Equivalence of Diplomas, Romania
• Centre for Recognition of Diplomas, Slovakia
• Quality and Qualifications Ireland, Ireland
• UK ENIC, United Kingdom
• National Information Center for Academic Recognition and Mobility, Armenia
• National Centre for Education of the Republic of Latvia (associated partner)

The aim of this project is to stipulate the mapping criteria for the higher education access qualifications, to prepare recommendations, and to promote discussion among the recognition authorities and other stakeholders about the procedures and criteria of automatic recognition of secondary education qualifications that allow access to higher education.

The project activities include creating methodology and conducting a study about higher education access qualifications in the project countries, preparing recommendations about automatic recognition of such qualifications, organization of peer learning activities among the centres, organization of national workshop presenting the results of the study, and information dissemination including international conferences and online information provided on the websites of the partner centres.

Comparative Study

The final study of the ARAQUA project, which compares education system in participant countries with the aim to research the possibilities of automatic recognition of qualifications which allow access to higher education was completed. The result of the studies introduced the situation in eight European countries: Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. In all cases, they are countries who have undergone and still are undergoing reform changes aimed at learning outcomes but also flexible pathways that make it possible to obtain the access qualification to more groups of people. For the purpose of automatic recognition, however, it is simpler to consider the more traditional pathways. Based on the results of the study, the access qualifications in partner countries are comparable when it comes to nominal duration of studies (in rule 12-13 years), duration of the school year (37 weeks on average), passing grades (40% on average in the study process, 32% on averige in the final examination). The access qualifications are usually placed on fourth level of the European Qualification Framework (EQF 4). Each of the participating countries applies forms of quality assurance in secondary education, although they differ among them. Similarly there are differences in categories and descriptions of the learning outcomes and their comparison would require further qualitative analysis. Recognition of access qualifications, similarly to recognition of higher education qualifications, is performed in accordance with the Lisbon Recognition Convention. In their recognition, the level and the access rights of the holder in the home country, together with the duration of studies and status of the education institutions. Other aspects, that may show more significant differences are not usually evaluated in the recognition process and one year difference in the duration should not pose an obstacle to recognition according to the participants of this project. As a result, the evaluated qualifications fulfil the conditions for automatic recognition. The compete report in English is available below.

National Workshop

The result of the comparative study as well as the project and the concept of automatic recognition themselves were introduced to the stakeholders on the national workshop The ARAQUA project and automatic recognition of qualifications in the Slovak Republic that was held on 9 May 2024 in the premises of the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic with the participation of higher education institutions, regional school administration offices (the recognition body for secondary qualifications) and the representatives of the ministry. A valuable space for sharing experience and the discussion about the stakeholders comments and views to the project recommendations was created and a proposal of the system of automatic recognition was introduced and discussed at the same time. The presentation about the ARAQUA project that was used during the workshop is available below.

Recommendations

Based on the comparative study and the results of the eight national workshops, the project group adopted the recommendations (Recommendations on automatic recognition of HE access qualifications in the ARAQUA countries). Their introduction and discussion was one of the program points of the final project conference, that was organized on 2 October 2024 in Tallinn, Estonia.

The recommendations define a qualification that should be automatically recognized as follows:

• The qualification should provide general eligibility rights of the holder to apply for admission at HE programmes.
• The qualification should be included in NQF with the reference to EQF level 4 and the corresponding learning outcomes.
• The qualification should be awarded by institution or awarding body that is quality assured, and the education programme leading to the qualification should be quality assured or approved by the ministry/respective agency, i.e. provider and programme should have undergone quality assurance procedures established in the country.
• The qualification should be identifiable/confirmed by a legible document and supported by transparency tools and publicly accessible information.
• The HE access qualifications should enjoy public confidence for the purpose of progression and successful participation in higher education within the national context.

The recommendations document also entails other aspects of qualifications with the access to higher education that clarify the context of their automatic recognition. The complete document is available below.

More information about the ARAQUA project can be found on the website of the project coordinator, NARIC Latvia.

 

 

 

 

Topics:

Recognition statement National regulated professions database Issuing of decisions Supplementary examination for third country healthcare professionals Proportionality test for regulated professions