Foreign Education Evaluation

Dear future student,

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU) has obtained institutional accreditation for a number of areas of education. Therefore CZU is now able to evaluate foreign secondary (high school) and tertiary (university/college) education within admission procedure in a simplified manner which will be described on this page.

You may have heard about the official recognition of foreign diplomas sometimes called “nostrification” (in Czech nostrifikace). Official recognition is an existing alternative to here described evaluation realized within the admission procedure and if you submitted your diploma/certificate for official recognition or if you have already received an official decision on recognition of your foreign education (nostrifikace) you don´t need to submit your documents for evaluation again. 

WHY DO WE HAVE TO EVALUATE FOREIGN SECONDARY AND TERTIARY EDUCATION?

Czech law on higher education sets requirements and conditions for admission to tertiary education and also specifies the procedure for recognition of foreign education. Hence we are not able to admit you to study at CZU without this evaluation. We believe that you will appreciate that evaluation done within the admission procedure is simpler, friendlier and also significantly cheaper than the official recognition.

You shall be aware of the following:

• The evaluation described on this page is valid for admission to CZU study programmes only.
• You will not receive any decision or certificate concerning the evaluation of your foreign education.
• Information on this page is intended for applicants already selected by admission committees of CZU faculties and institute for study at CZU.

Who is eligible to submit an application for evaluation of a foreign diploma?

Study applicant selected by admission committee for study at CZU. That means you have to meet all other conditions and requirements for admission to study at CZU in order to be eligible for simplified evaluation within the admission procedure.

• Eligible bachelor degree applicants:
  • applicants having gained secondary education by completing a secondary education programme at a foreign secondary education institution;
  • applicants having gained tertiary education by completing a tertiary education programme at a foreign education institution (graduates of bachelor or master degree programme);
• Eligible master degree applicants:
  • applicants having gained tertiary education by completing a tertiary education programme at a foreign education institution (graduates of bachelor or master degree programme or their equivalent);
• Eligible doctoral degree applicants:
  • applicants having gained tertiary education by completing a master degree tertiary education programme at a foreign education institution (graduates of a master degree programme or its equivalent only);

HOW IS FOREIGN EDUCATION EVALUATED?

First of all CZU officers will check if your documents are genuine and if they meet all requirements you will find lower on this page. If the formal check of the documents is done and there is no doubt about submitted documents we verify whether the institution which has issued your documents exists and has the right to deliver education you gained there. This step is typically done differently for secondary and tertiary institutions but in general, we rely on information provided by the ministry of education of each particular country.

The basic question is not complicated, CZU Study Administration Office (SAO) evaluates if the education you gained is appropriate for a continuation of your education on the university level and if content and intensity of your previous study is meeting basic requirements. When SAO has doubts concerning the sufficient level, extent or content of the previous foreign education, SAO may ask you to prove education in the manner laid down in Section 48(4)(a) of the Czech Higher Education Act (that means you may be asked to apply for official recognition/nostrification instead which has different rules for evaluation. If you thereafter fail to present decision on recognition of a foreign education (nostrifikace), you cannot be admitted to the desired study programme at CZU.

DO I NEED TO PAY SOMETHING FOR EVALUATION OF MY FOREIGN EDUCATION?

Yes, there is a fee for evaluation of the foreign education given by the Czech law. You will be charged 700 CZK (approx. 28 EUR). You will be instructed later about the payment procedure. The fee is not refundable.

HOW SHOULD I PROCEED AND WHAT SHALL I SUBMIT?

 1) I will submit my secondary education for evaluation:

1. You need to submit your high school leaving diploma/certificate or its equivalent. We don´t need the original document, but it's verified/authenticated copy. See details on authentication of your documents below.
2. Diploma/certificate must make you eligible for the study of a bachelor´s study programme in the country where you pursued your secondary education. E.g. you passed secondary school in Indonesia and you are now eligible to apply for the study of a bachelor degree in Indonesia.
3. You need to submit an overview of your study results, typically in the form of a transcript of record or diploma supplement. We need a list of courses you have passed during your study and the grades you received. Such a document also typically includes a number of teaching hours per course/subject per week or similar information. Also, this document must be submitted as a verified copy with necessary authentication, the original is not required.
4. Statement (foreign secondary school or Ministry of education states that diploma was obtained by completing studies in a secondary education programme at a foreign secondary school acting according to the legal regulations of the foreign state and it authorises the holder to enter studies in a Bachelor´s study programme). The statement may have a form of a written letter signed by a relevant authority.

2) I will submit my tertiary (higher) education for evaluation:

1. You need to submit your diploma (bachelor or master diploma) or it's equivalent. We don´t need the original document, but it's verified/authenticated copy. See details on authentication of your documents below.
2. If you apply for a master degree programme at CZU your bachelor diploma/certificate must make you eligible for the study of a master´s study programme in the country where you pursued your bachelor education. E.g. you graduated as a bachelor in Kazakhstan and with your bachelor degree, you are now eligible to study master degree in Kazakhstan.
3. You need to submit an overview of your study results, typically in the form of a transcript of records or diploma supplement. We need a list of courses you have passed during your study and grades you received. Such a document also typically includes a number of credits, points or units per course or total study or similar information. Also, this document must be submitted as a verified copy with necessary authentication, the original is not required.
4. If you apply for PhD study at CZU, requirements are similar, but you must submit your master degree diploma and transcript (or equivalent) for evaluation.

Note about originals and verified copies: If your documents are already authenticated if necessary and you are present in the Czech Republic, you may also submit originals to the authorized officer of CZU and CZU then makes verified copy for internal purpose of evaluation and originals will be returned to you immediately.

Authentication of documents is typically a legal requirement and the following options exist:

• Your documents can be recognised without authentication based on inter-governmental treaties and therefore you don´t need to verify them by Apostille or superlegaliazation.
• You can use simplified authentication by Apostille when the country where your documents were issued signed the Hague Convention (for details see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostille_Convention).
• You have no other option than to submit your documents to typically local Ministry of Foreign Affairs and after that also to the Czech Embassy. This double verification is called superlegalization.

IMPORTANT: Officially authenticated translations are required of all documents whose originals are not issued in Czech, English or Slovak and therefore they must be officially translated into Czech or English. The pages with translations must be appended to the authenticated copies of the documents which they concern in such a way that makes it impossible to subsequently replace or substitute the pages containing the translation.

Since authentication is the most complex part of the evaluation of your foreign education we strongly recommend you scan/take a photo of all authenticated documents you intend to submit (send to CZU by post) and ask for pre-approval by email (foreign_diploma@rektorat.czu.cz). It may save you money and time!

APPLICATION FORM

At the bottom of this page, you can find the application form necessary for the evaluation procedure. Please, fill in all details, sign it, scan it and submit it by email to foreign_diploma@rektorat.czu.cz.

WHERE TO SUBMIT VERIFIED/NOTARIZED COPIES OF MY ALREADY AUTHENTICATED DOCUMENTS?

Once your documents have been pre-approved by International Relations Office of CZU, please, send them by registered post to the following address:

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

International Relations Office – Evaluation Unit

Kamycka 129, 165 00 Prague Suchdol

Czech Republic

We will confirm receipt of your documents by email once they are delivered to us. Please, double-check all submitted documents, simple copies of diplomas and transcripts without any verification/notarization will not be accepted!

QUESTIONS?

Please, feel free to contact us, you can send us an email to the email address from which you have received a link to access this page.

Bc. Volha Rakava

Thank you for your cooperation and see you in Prague!