Information on the recognition and assessment of education may be obtained from the:
MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Education Recognition Section
Kotnikova 38
SI – -1000 Ljubljana

Phone: +386 (0)1 478-46-00
Phone (Education Recognition Section): +386 (0)1 478-47 45
Fax: +386 (0)1 478-47-19
E-mail: gp.mvzt@gov.si  
Website: http://www.mvzt.gov.si

As from 21 January 2005, the legal basis for education recognition are the Act on Recognition and Assessment of Education (Ur. L. RS, št. 73/04 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 73/04)) and the applicable bilateral agreements and arrangements, as well as international conventions to which the Republic of Slovenia is a signatory. For the period until 21 January 2005, the Act Regulating the Recognition of Foreign School Certificates (Ur. l. RS, št. 42/72) is applied.

In the Republic of Slovenia the subject of education recognition is laid down in the Act on Recognition and Assessment of Education and applies to a foreign certificate of fully completed education in compliance with the legislation on higher education in the country of origin. In accordance with the Act on Recognition and Assessment of Education, a foreign certificate of fully completed education  must fulfil the following FOUR basic legal conditions in their entirety for the positive recognition of education*, namely that:

a) the certificate was issued upon completion of a state-approved education programme (an education programme must comply with higher education legislation and must be a part of the state-approved higher education system of an individual country),
b) the certificate refers to an official level of education that is available within the  state-approved Slovenian higher education system (formal (Bologna) and state-approved),
c) the education programme is accredited (verified attainment of quality standards in accordance with the higher education legislation of an individual country), and
d) the institution issuing the certificate is accredited (verified attainment of quality standards in accordance with the higher education legislation of an individual country).

*With regard to the above stated conditions please also read the section "Considerations before selecting a study programme abroad"

In addition to these basic legal conditions, the Act on Recognition and Assessment of Education also lays down the following criteria to be considered for the purpose of recognition and assessment of the education system in the Republic of Slovenia:

• education system,
• list of courses, curriculum and education programme,
• academic achievements,
• duration of education,
• rights arising from education.

Implementing regulations, forms and documents to be submitted with the application for recognition and assessment, and additional information on the course of procedure, legal protection, costs and countries with which the Republic of Slovenia has signed a bilateral agreement on the recognition of education are available on the web site of the Education Recognition Unit.

1. Recognition of education with a view to access to further education

In the procedure for recognition with a view access to further education, the holder of a foreign educational certificate (certificate or diploma) shall be issued a decision granting him/her the right to continue education in the Republic of Slovenia.  The procedure is initiated by the holder of a foreign certificate or diploma submitting a prescribed application form to a school or other educational establishment (body in charge of education recognition) in the Republic of Slovenia, where the holder seeks to pursue his/her education.  On the basis of the issued decision the applicant shall be enrolled in an appropriate education programme.

2. Recognition of education with a view to access to employment

The procedure for recognition with a view to access to employment is initiated by the holder of a foreign educational certificate submitting a prescribed application form to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, which then issues a decision on the recognition stating the following:

• the level of the Slovenian education system equivalent to the level of foreign education,
• the major or discipline of the completed foreign education programme if it is stated by the certificate or diploma,
• the foreign vocational, professional or academic title.

The holder of the certificate or diploma may use the title obtained through studies abroad on the basis of this decision.

Upon the request of the holder of a foreign certificate or diploma, the Ministry may also adopt a decision on the equivalence of a foreign vocational, professional or academic education or title to Slovenian ones, providing a comparable educational programme exists in the Republic of Slovenia.

3. Assessment of education

A domestic or foreign natural or legal person (hereinafter: applicant) may apply for such an assessment. The assessment of a foreign certificate or diploma may only be requested by its holder or a person with a legal interest (employer, employment agency, scholarship provider) who must also submit the holder’s consent to it. The applicant shall state in the application addressed to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology the elements to be assessed, namely:

• the validity of the education programme according to the legislation of the country of issue of the certificate or diploma;
• the level of the Slovenian education system equivalent to the level of foreign education;
• the major or discipline of the completed foreign education programme (to be assessed only if it is stated by the certificate or diploma);
• the foreign vocational, professional or academic title;
• the equivalence of the foreign vocational, professional or academic title to a Slovenian one;
• the completed part of the study programme abroad in which the holder of the foreign certificate or diploma wishes to continue education in the Republic of Slovenia.

The Ministry shall issue its opinion about the stated elements. The opinion may also be published in the form of information of a public nature.


CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE SELECTING A STUDY PROGRAMME ABROAD

The matters that need to be considered when a foreign certificate or diploma is submitted (immediately or upon finishing the study) into the assessment procedure with the view to access to employment (in compliance with the Act on Recognition and Assessment of Education, hereinafter ARAE) and thus make foreign education a part of the Slovenian state-approved educational system as well as recognise it as such in the Republic of Slovenia, are the following:
1. Education abroad must be a part of the state-approved educational system in the country of choice.

The country of choice for education must be able to provide a state-approved official level of education (Bologna level if it has already been introduced) and to award a state-approved personal title. The term "state-approved education" means education based on programmes with accreditation and provided by institutions with accreditation.  

CAUTION! The Ministry should like to point to the fact that it has encountered an increasing number of applications for assessment of foreign certificates or diplomas related to education called life-long learning (LLL educational programmes, sometimes also entitled  vocational training, corso di formazione permanente e ricorrente, weiterbildung, continuing education…) as a kind of educational branch parallel to the state-approved formal education. It needs to be underlined that no measure of cautiousness is wasted when choosing a foreign (and especially) higher education programme; in the country of origin, such an education is often provided by accredited higher education institutions and this makes the recognisability of the status and accreditation of the programme that much more difficult.  The Ministry has also concluded that additional confusion and lack of transparency are caused by misleading titles of such programmes which often use words such as:  master.

It therefore needs to be stated and advised that most professional/academic titles in the country of origin are legally protected and can be awarded only by institutions with a mandate to issue state-approved titles and certificates or diplomas. In certain countries legally unprotected titles or terms such as master (which is otherwise legally protected in other countries) can be used by anybody.  They may be awarded by institutions without accreditation, by companies, institutes, and similar, or by the very universities providing such programmes, which are often a part of their services, but do not fall within the formal and state-approved educational structure.  

Another indicator revealing the nature of such programmes may also be the fact that they are payable (and easily accessible) while the majority of regular educational programmes have to undergo, similar to the state-approved education in Slovenia, certain selection (selection, enrolment) procedures based on public tendering in the country of origin in order to obtain the status of state-approved educational programmes which award state-approved titles and certificates or diplomas.

In compliance with the ARAE, certificates or diplomas awarded on completion of life-long learning programmes CANNOT BE subject to the recognition procedure with a view to gain access to employment. However, such education may be taken into consideration by employers at the time of concluding an employment contract.


2. The institution must be accredited in the country of origin (and in compliance with national legislation).

Accreditation is a procedure carried out by individual countries in order to assess the quality of a particular higher education institution (as a whole or with regards to its educational programme only) so as to formally recognise its compliance with national specific minimum criteria and standards as well as to grant it the status of a national state-approved educational institution. This procedure allows the state to assume formal responsibility for the institution/programme and to exert its influence over it; consequently, such accreditation or similar quality control procedures (e.g. international procedures based on an international consensus) in the country of origin give educational certificates or diplomas the status of "a certificate, diploma, degree or other document confirming a successful completion of an education programme and a level of education attained at an educational establishment in compliance with the law of the issuing country", as stipulated by the ARAE.


3. The educational programme must be accredited in the country of origin (and in compliance with national legislation).

4. The educational programme must lead to an official level of education in the country of origin which can be incorporated  within the country's higher education law that governs stated-approved education.


How and where can information be obtained?

The most reliable information can be obtained from the foreign state body (ministry) responsible for secondary and higher education in the country of origin; however, it is also possible to obtain information from websites of individual foreign Enic/Naric centres (www.enic-naric.net), or from a higher education institution, or similar.

The meaning of state-approved education is defined in the relevant legislation regulating the area of higher education in individual countries.


GLOSSARY OF TERMS
(Definition of legal terms in the ARAE)

1. Only ACADEMIC recognition of the official level of education is envisaged.

2. An educational certificate of fully completed educational programme
This is the certificate subject to the recognition procedure. The recognition procedure is initiated at the request of the holder of a foreign educational certificate for a fully completed educational programme. An educational certificate of fully completed education is a certificate, diploma, degree or other document confirming a successful completion of an education programme and a level of education attained at an educational establishment in compliance with the law of the issuing country.
An educational certificate awarded after the completion of an internationally recognised or accredited education programme or a programme jointly offered by several educational institutions is also considered an educational certificate.


3. In compliance with the law of the issuing country
This phrase means compliance with the legislation governing higher education in an individual country.  This legislation determines the official state-approved levels of education (in Slovenia: the Higher Education Act).  According to the ARAE, they are the only ones that can be subject to the recognition procedure. It is important that the educational programme awards an official state-approved level of education in the country where education took place and can be incorporated within the Slovenian state-approved higher education system (in compliance with Article 33 of the Higher Education Act regulating the state-approved (Bologna) level of education).  

4. State-approved status
Higher education regulations in individual countries determine the status of "state-approved" in relation to educational certificates. The status of being a state-approved certificate proving the level of education implies two obligatory preconditions that need to exist within national legislation: Accreditation of the institution and its education programme (these two requirements are stated in the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education; the Convention is a professional and legal basis for recognition of educational qualification gained in any modern national higher education system).

5. Accreditation in the country of origin (in compliance with national legislation) The procedure is used by individual countries to assess the quality of a higher education institution and its programme, so as to establish its compliance with the minimum criteria and standards needed for a formal recognition as state-approved education and level of education. By doing this, the country officially recognises an institution or a programme as its own higher institution and programme which has thus formally become a part of the state-approved higher education system (e.g. higher education institutions in compliance with the Higher Education Act).  This is therefore a process which places the institution/programme under formal responsibility to and influence of the state; consequently, such accreditation or similar quality control procedures (such as procedures carried out by an international accreditation body on the basis of an international consensus) in the country of origin give educational certificates or diplomas the status of "an educational certificate confirming a successful completion of an education programme and a level of education attained at an educational establishment in compliance with the law of the issuing country".

6. Internationally recognised
Article 2 of the ARAE (defining the document subject to the recognition procedure) states "internationally recognised" as an additional option to accreditation. According to the definition above, the term "accreditation" means a formal recognition of an institution/programme by a country. A formal recognition may have, in addition to the above stated national character, a possible international character; providing a common consensus of the countries exists, an international (accreditation) body grants a formal recognition to these programmes and institutions through an accreditation-like procedure. Such interpretation and understanding of the wording of the ARAE is, as already mentioned, also specified in the explanation of the Act itself. This explanation along with international principles in this professional domain and with the Lisbon Convention on the recognition of qualifications itself are, undoubtedly, an adequate basis for the understanding of the entire Act.

7. Recognition (Nostrification)
Education certificates recognised prior to January 2005, in compliance with the Recognition of Foreign School Certificates Act (Ur. L. RS št. 42/72), were issued according to a different legal basis and by a different competent body. In 2005, the Republic of Slovenia changed the legal basis used for the education recognition procedure. Owing to contemporary international standards and the ratified Lisbon Convention on the recognition of qualifications, the Act on Recognition and Assessment of Education (Ur. L. RS št, 73/04) was adopted. The Act established a new regulation of the recognition and assessment of the education system. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia has been the only competent body for issuing decisions on the recognition of foreign education ever since the Act entered into effect.

8. Lawfully obtained  
In line with the previously stated legal premises on the status of state-approved educational certificates, terms such as "according to the law", "lawfully obtained" and " (titolo)legale" (translated as zakonito pridobljen) can only define the lawfulness of implemented and possibly non-accredited programmes (implementation of non-accredited programmes and the awarding of diplomas upon their completion is not considered an illegal activity in an individual country). The stated terms therefore do not prove that a programme is state-approved and that an official qualification (the state-approved (Bologna) level of education) is obtained upon its completion.  These terms are in principle non-compliant with the international and harmonised terminology in the field of academic recognition of educational qualification. Expert terminology in this field was made uniform on the basis of the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (UR. l. RS, št. – mednarodne pogodbe št.14/99), which was used as expert groundwork in adopting the ARAE, and on which the international academic recognition of educational qualifications is based in practice and in terms of expert terminology.

In compliance with the ARAE, education certificates or diplomas which do not fulfil the basic legal premises CANNOT BE subject to the educational qualification recognition procedure with a view to gain access to employment. However, employers in Slovenia may take them into consideration at the time of concluding an employment contract, but it is impossible to recognise them through an ACADEMIC recognition procedure with a view to gain access to employment.