The Secondary Education workshop is designed to guide attendees through some of the common features of secondary education systems around the world. Using sample credentials, assessment guides, and education ladders, the presenters will highlight aspects of both traditional and non-traditional secondary education systems, examination-based secondary credentials, and a variety of assessment methods and philosophies. The Secondary Education workshop is an essential component of earning the TAICEP Secondary School Certificate, and participants will have an opportunity to complete the examination leading to the award of this Certificate. This is not a workshop designed to promote a suggested equivalency between systems, but to empower participants to determine comparability as needed within their own education environment. Note: The Secondary School Certificate focuses on secondary school credentials, including internal and external examinations, and non-traditional secondary education.

Please note that pre-conference workshops require a separate ticket that can be purchased along with your conference registration.

NOTE: Lunch is provided for all workshop attendees.

Are you new to the profession or need a refresher on the fundamentals of credential evaluation? Then this workshop is for you! This half-day workshop presents strategies for success in credential evaluation through incorporating a fundamental philosophy and methodology to your everyday work, ensuring both equity and consistency. This workshop provides participants with an opportunity to apply the basic tenets of evaluation methodology to the evaluation of authentic academic records through identifying the education system and benchmark credentials, using indigenous terminology, applying best practices to grade conversions and determining the appropriate comparability for evaluation. Through utilizing authentic academic records, participants have the opportunity to apply theory to practical evaluations. This workshop provides you with more confidence in your work in credential evaluation and provides a great opportunity to grow your network of other TAICEP members and credential evaluators in the field.

Please note that pre-conference workshops require a separate ticket that can be purchased along with your conference registration.

NOTE: Lunch is provided for all workshop attendees.

The meeting will begin with a working lunch. Food will be provided for all Board Members, Committee Chairs, and Chair-Elects.

A refreshment break will be provided at 3:45-4:00pm.

The Secondary Education workshop is designed to guide attendees through some of the common features of secondary education systems around the world. Using sample credentials, assessment guides, and education ladders, the presenters will highlight aspects of both traditional and non-traditional secondary education systems, examination-based secondary credentials, and a variety of assessment methods and philosophies. The Secondary Education workshop is an essential component of earning the TAICEP Secondary School Certificate, and participants will have an opportunity to complete the examination leading to the award of this Certificate. This is not a workshop designed to promote a suggested equivalency between systems, but to empower participants to determine comparability as needed within their own education environment. Note: The Secondary School Certificate focuses on secondary school credentials, including internal and external examinations, and non-traditional secondary education.

Please note that pre-conference workshops require a separate ticket that can be purchased along with your conference registration.

NOTE: Lunch is provided for all workshop attendees.

If the global COVID crisis has taught us anything in the international credential and admissions profession and beyond, it's flexibility and the need for equitable evaluation and admissions practices, and to reconsider the traditional tools and policies used for the transparency, accountability and anti-corruption measures of the education activities. As education and record-keeping practices were suddenly disrupted at home, students were not able to attain their traditional educational goals and records that credential evaluators and universities normally require, forcing organizations and universities to amend their practices and policies. While this is indeed challenging, this is not a new phenomenon for international education professionals who incorporate flexible frameworks in the evaluation process, as they routinely evaluate applications from displaced and vulnerable applicants. This half-day session highlights how evaluation and admissions processes that incorporate a framework for flexibility can be used to support access for students whose education has been disrupted by crisis. Best practices and strategies in document review, verification, and working with vulnerable students will be explored, as well as how these strategies can be applied in an emergency or unprecedented times.

Please note that pre-conference workshops require a separate ticket that can be purchased along with your conference registration.

NOTE: Lunch is provided for all workshop attendees.

Let the Conference begin! 

Please join us for the TAICEP 8^th Annual Conference Welcome and Opening session and be welcomed by the following distinguished speakers:

• Mags Hutchinson – SQA, International Articulation Manager, Chair of 2022 Conference Planning Team
• Bailie Thomas Kerr – Glasgow City Council
• Jeanie Bell – President, TAICEP
• John McMorris – SQA, Director of Business Development
• Aileen Ponton, Chief Executive Officer of the SCQF Partnership

This session will be a discussion about the ongoing development and enhancement of the SA National Qualifications Framework (NQF), a first generation NQF that is reviewing fundamental principles to ensure ongoing relevance, sustainability and value in an ever-changing context. We will also share some research in relation to some unique aspects of the NQF, including the recognition of Professional Bodies and the registration of designations on the NQF. Finally, we will touch on our automation journey which seeks to enhance the NQF MIS (database of qualifications, achievements, professional bodies and designations) as well as enable efficiency in the registration of qualifications.

An update on education in Central America is long overdue. This session will provide an overview of the secondary and post-secondary educational structures of six Central American countries, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, noting commonalities and differences. The emphasis will be on recent changes to the educational systems, recognition/accreditation and quality assurance practices, and online resources and tools.

Something happened in spring 2020 that turned life at our agency upside down- we began accepting academic documents emailed to us from schools and universities. Email is an incredibly convenient way to transfer information, but steps need to be taken to ensure that messages aren't being spoofed, and that senders really are who they claim to be. This session will demonstrate the technical, step-by-step process that Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) implemented to vet emailed documents for authenticity. Participants will learn how the email transmission process works, and how bad actors can take advantages of weaknesses in the system. They will also discover what tools can be used to identify suspicious emails and what steps can be taken when problems arise.

The SCQF is Scotland's Lifelong Learning Framework and is celebrating its 21st birthday this year having been at the center of Scottish education since its inception in 2001. It is designed to enable employers, learners and the public in general to: understand and compare the full range and parity of Scottish qualifications; develop and understand learning and career pathways; understand how different qualifications and learning can help improve workforce development and skills utilization; relate Scottish qualifications to qualifications in other countries; use the SCQF Level Descriptors to assist with qualifications development and benchmarking skills and experience. The SCQF represents quality in the Scottish education system and underpins key government strategies focused on developing an education and skills system that is fit for Scotland in the 21st Century. This session will introduce the SCQF and show how Scotland's national framework has developed over its 21 years and why it has been the constant in a changing educational landscape as well as explaining how its key features enable the recognition of qualifications.

The session presents the development and status of the profession in Italy focusing on two recent achievements in the recognition of the figure of credential evaluator as first initiatives of the kind in Europe:1. the formalization of the professional figure of credential evaluator within the framework of Italian non-regulated professions; 2. The birth of the first Italian Professional Association of Credential Evaluators (APICE). In the United States, higher education is decentralized, and the federal government has no authority over creating standards regarding the acceptance of educational credentials, and this session will provide a brief history of the profession, including an overview of the professional standards set by NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services, Inc.). Finally, in the view of a comparative approach between the systems, there will be a discussion on the various duties and responsibilities held by (junior) evaluators and senior evaluators at both CIMEA and ECE.

Have you ever come across programs taught at a seminary in Africa, India, Latin America, or elsewhere, and awarded by a Vatican institution? Have you encountered theological programs with little-to-no online presence, making research difficult? Have you wondered about recognition and degree structures? If yes, then this session is for you! We will explore theological programs offered by seminaries and higher education institutions around the world. We will look at the qualifications framework and the different types of institutional affiliations in the Vatican. We will also examine programs affiliated to other in-country higher education institutions and share information on accreditation organizations that operate outside of the national recognition/accreditation mechanisms.

Institutional and programmatic accreditation of higher education institutions and programs in the U.S. has many affects from federal funding to professional licensure after graduation. This session will review the history of higher education accreditation in the U.S., the types of accreditation, the accreditation process, and its affects on both institutions and students.

Don't wait until a student arrives on campus to realize their documents might be falsified. There are steps you can take to verify the authenticity of documents (including test scores and credential evaluation reports) before you accept applicants for admission to your institution. Join us to learn more about document security and verification.

One island split in two, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, couldn't be more unique. Spanish and French colonization and the ensuing struggles have led to widely divergent cultures. Cultural background, language barriers, wealth disparities, and revolution have molded these two nations into what they are today. As we have come to expect in this line of work, all of this history, turmoil and change has impacted and formed the educational systems of these disparate Caribbean nations. This session will delve into the history that formed these two nations, the effect that history has had on the educational systems as we know them today, and how to approach Haitian and Dominican educational credentials with confidence.

For over two years, Lebanon has been hit by three major crises; the explosion of the Port of Beirut, the Covid-19 pandemic and worst of all, an economic crisis that World Bank is calling "one of the most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century." This has caused many Lebanese citizens to move to neighboring countries and even further. In 2020/21 Lebanon joined the top 10 countries of residence in Canada for the first time. Similarly, the number of graduate students entering the U.S. from Lebanon has risen since 2016/17, according to Open Doors, increasing by nearly 6% in 2021. Lebanon's dual education system stands out due to two countries that helped form its structure-France and the United States. This leads to variations in terminology and language that make credential evaluation precarious. This presentation will focus on secondary and post-secondary education within Lebanon's American- and French-patterned systems. We will look at accreditation, secondary, post-secondary and TVET credentials, credit systems, grading scales, sample documents, equivalencies, digitization, and mobility trends.

The United States is currently absent from the more than 150 nations that have developed a National Qualification Framework (NQF). This session seeks to investigate the reasons why, and how a United States Qualification Framework (USQF) could be developed. Participants will learn the origins of NQFs, how they operate, and what is required to implement a NQF. A panel of speakers will share their experiences and expertise on the landscape of the United States educational system, and include updates about the progress of creating a USQF.

Venture with us on a journey through the Nordic regions of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. We'll discuss the various secondary educational tracks available to students along with the corresponding credentials for each country. We'll also explore common grading scales and placement recommendations upon completion of the educational tracks.

In 2021, South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and World Education Services (WES) partnered to deliver a pilot project aimed at reliably validating and assessing the education of individuals displaced by political unrest, conflict, and natural disasters even when complete, verified documents are not available. The aim is to facilitate access to furthering the academic and career goals of eligible individuals who, because of adverse circumstances in their country of education, lack standard proof of academic achievement. The pilot has been unique, since it expanded methodology and incorporated and tested some of the value-adding aspects and good practices to achieve positive results. Further, the project has also tested the interview methodologies used by SAQA that was informed by the NOKUT/ UQP/WES Models and applied the RPL related documentation process used by WES in its assessment of the credentials and qualifications of refugees and displaced individuals. The presentation will share preliminary learnings from the SAQA-WES pilot project using a unique format of combining 'discussion' with 'visual and audio narratives' shared by the refugees and asylum seekers themselves.

Burundi's education system has gone through several reforms and faced a number of challenges in recent years. As part of the TAICEP Francophone African Research Project, this session will give a comprehensive overview of the education system in Burundi, including standard duration and final credentials awarded in primary, secondary, tertiary, and vocational education. It will also cover important legislation, authentication, recognition of private higher education and good practices to equip evaluators to make informed decisions on their evaluation policies for Burundi and provide resources for completing evaluations of Burundian credentials.

The session is aimed to present a panorama of the higher education system in China as well as related qualifications at individual levels, including regular qualifications and variety of trending qualifications. In order to simplify, support and quality-assure the assessment process, information concerning verification highlighted in the session is of the essence of transforming theoretical concepts to actual practices. Centre for Student Services and Development, Ministry of Education, P.R. China (CSSD), known as the official window for verification issues, brings its ongoing developments in post-Covid period. As an innovative challenge, the Nordic Association of University Administrators (NUAS) will analyze assessment approaches in Nordic countries and give rise to further reflections by unfolding similarities as well as differences of assessment in respective countries.

How suitable is a student for higher education? Can you predict student success? Do presented qualifications hold the answers? In admissions, evaluating applicant qualifications is increasingly the starting point! As a result, the credential evaluator is asked more specific questions about student suitability. They might also be expected to provide nuanced guidance and advice on 'higher education readiness'. Ecctis' International Entry Qualifications (IEQs) research in 2016 and 2018 looked at indicators of 'HE readiness' that could assist decision making. The work identified and analyzed possible predictors of student success, considered their reliability; effectively, looking 'beyond the evaluation' of the qualifications held by individual applicants. The findings challenged preconceptions of those awards thought to be acceptable (or not) for access to higher education. The research considered how other indicators could be used to inform decisions on student readiness. By analyzing grade performance data, higher education outcomes, language proficiency and other factors, 'Beyond Comparison!' explores a more holistic approach to credential evaluation in the context of institution admissions...with tangible benefits for the evaluator, institution and individual.

Proposals to reform Myanmar's education system, including adopting a 12-year pre-university system and decentralizing control of the system, adding autonomy to HEI's, and expanding private education, were halted as a result of the March 2021 coup. This session proposes to outline the structure of the new system and provide insight into the effects on students and the ability to obtain documentation after the military's takeover of universities and the expansion of civil disobedience approaching civil war.

Do you knit or crochet? If you do, bring your WIP (work in progress) while we talk about all things related to knitting and crocheting. Anyone is welcome to join us. Who knows? Maybe you will be inspired to start learning a new craft!

To support the 2022 Conference Service Project, participants have the option of donating their knitted or crocheted items to Refuweegee, a registered UK charity that supports new arrivals to Glasgow, especially refugees. All types of items and all sizes are needed.

The recognition process is facing new challenges in the current digital era and entering into digital norms. The credential evaluation world is demanding more digital tools and sources for recognition of foreign qualifications in daily work. Nowadays, more countries, education authorities and institutions have digitally incremented both using and documenting educational databases. The digital norms require that we adopt digital strategies and skills in our workflow. This session will provide you with tools based on the experience of the Swedish ENIC-NARIC. Learn how to establish an efficient digital search engine for education links and verification services and how to critically evaluate the quality of digital databases and sources. In addition, this session will focus on the digital sources from the Middle East, including how to perform verification tasks and evaluate digital sources regarding recognition of foreign qualifications from this region. This session will also discuss the challenges that can be faced when a unified verification system is missing, verification services are different within education institutions from the same country and between Middle East countries.

Travel with us to Madagascar and Rwanda as we explore the educational systems of these two African countries. This presentation will include an overview of the educational systems, updates on educational laws, public and private institutions and recognition, vocational education, sample credentials, and authentication resources. Attendees will leave this session with a newfound confidence in evaluating credentials from the selected countries.

Credentials evaluation professionals serve as facilitators of international mobility for students and professionals alike. Recognizing comparative evaluation methodologies is key to understanding how this process works around the globe. In 2015, at TAICEP's First General Meeting, a plenary session was given on this topic, spurring much thought and discussion. This session proposes to revisit these evaluation principles eight years later, further exploring similarities and differences in approach. While similar criteria may form the basis of assessments (e.g., institutional recognition, minimum entrance requirements, length of program, etc.), their emphasis and interpretations can differ in the determination of substantial differences and equivalence. The panel will have seasoned evaluators representing Australia, South Africa, the UK, and the US. Focusing on a designated set of credentials, the panelists will showcase variations in perspectives and rationale. Audience members will also be invited to participate in the debate and friendly evaluation review of credentials.

Implementation of the National Education Policy of 2020 reforms has begun and will affect the cohort entering postsecondary study in India for academic year 2022/23 starting in July 2022. This session will emphasize changes in the university sector using one central university and one state university as examples to demonstrate how two institutions are structuring the new postsecondary qualifications. Discussion will include the uniform Credit System and 10-point grading systems, Multiple Entry and Exit Schemes involving exit credentials after two, four, six, and eight semesters, plus the framework of core discipline, core elective, and non-core elective coursework, information on the new access paths toward the PhD, double bachelor degrees, and introduction of a 4-Year Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP), and more than space allows to list here. The expansion of online education and need to amalgamate individual colleges into larger multidisciplinary entities will also be discussed in light of India's new "three-pronged" strategy of institutional classification.

Have questions about 3-year degrees? So does everyone else! Join our discussion about who issues them, what they mean, how they are considered for entry into graduate programs, and how institutions approach establishing policies to accept them. This session will be a round-table type discussion. Bring your questions, perspective, and expertise. Discussion leaders will include: Diana Stevens (Australian Catholic U), Meg Wenger (ECE), Justine Watts (FACS), Annetta Stroud (AACRAO), Polly Tohaneanu (U of Idaho), Julia Funaki (AACRAO), and the presenters.

The Lisbon Recognition Convention states one of the possible outcomes of recognition to be facilitation of access to the labour market. However, few studies have been made in this regard. Recently, both the Norwegian and the Swedish ENIC-NARIC offices have carried out rather comprehensive surveys among the users of their services. The findings of the Norwegian study resulted in the recently launched report: «Approval for benefit? Examination of NOKUT's general approval scheme for foreign higher education». The evaluation was carried out by the independent social science research institute NIFU. The Swedish study includes several sub-studies. The first one resulted in the report "The importance of recognition of foreign education for entering the labour market: An overview". The second report will be published summer 2022. With points of departure in these surveys, NOKUT and UHR will use the session to share their motivation, experiences and finding, as well as making reflections of how information collected in such surveys can contribute to ensure relevancy of our services in the future.

Current headlines such as the crisis in Ukraine, lockdowns in China, as well as less globally publicized news, such as falling enrollments at German universities, delayed SSC and HSC exams in Bangladesh due to the pandemic, insecurity and COVID impacting students in certain regions in Kenya, etc., all have implications for international credential evaluation. In this session, the presenters will provide an overview of select global news items and discuss the implications for evaluators. Specific examples of how their institutions – Michigan State University and University of Amsterdam – have or might handle cases from world regions will be provided. Participants are encouraged to voice their perspectives on how their institutions have or would respond to cases from the areas discussed, with the aim of providing opportunities to learn and re-think approaches to international credentials, policies, and processes.

This session will give a brief overview of the different trends in the harmonization of higher education between Francophone African countries. It will give a brief background into regional African initiatives for harmonization and quality assurance. Then it will focus on the implementation of the Licence-Master-Doctorat (LMD) reforms throughout Francophone Africa with an emphasis on the more populous countries of Francophone Africa.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges for medical schools in the Caribbean as well as for the operations of CAAM-HP itself. Since March 2020, CAAM-HP postponed site visits scheduled for 2020/2021. Medical schools in the region were forced to close and switch to e-learning. As regards the clinical programme, most schools reported that clinical students were asked to discontinue their rotations in keeping with requests from affiliated hospitals. Another significant consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the suspension of international travel and closure of national borders. In July 2021 the CAAM-HP Secretariat staged two webinars to which medical schools were invited to share their experiences, challenges and interventions. Participating in the webinars were representatives of the international regulatory agencies, the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) and the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG).. CAAM-HP set about exploring the role of Virtual/Hybrid Visits and the challenges of its acceptability in providing formal accreditation resulting in a NEW document, Policies and Procedures for Conducting Virtual/Hybrid Site Visits.

Cooperation is crucial to develop tools we use every day, and it makes those tools even better than what you planned at the very beginning. This is why CIMEA participates in projects that are co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, creating new tools that are at the service of credential evaluation, starting from the Q-ENTRY database, to the National Reports of the RecoLATIN and the RecoASIA projects, to the SCAN-D database, the table of comparison of the AdReN project and the publications of the TPG-LRC project. CIMEA starts with a good idea, but what makes it special and more effective is the participation and the cooperation with project partners that help us include other stakeholders and see things in a different light.

Despite Puerto Rico being a U.S. territory, its education system is relatively unknown and sometimes perceived as a "foreign" system. This presentation will help participants better understand how education is organized in Puerto Rico. It will provide an overview of the structure of Puerto Rico's education system and describe its similarities with the systems of U.S. States, as well as its differences. In addition, we will discuss the impact of Puerto Rico's economic crisis on the education system, manifested in negative developments like the defunding of the University of Puerto Rico.

TAICEP leadership will report on the state of the organization. All conference attendees are encouraged to attend the business meeting.

Recent events of the past year in Afghanistan have made the need for understanding and flexibility imperative for students around the world navigating their way into new countries and new systems of education and employment. This session will introduce attendees to the educational system of Afghanistan, common academic credentials, and best practices for document review and verification. Panelists will discuss both the impacts on education for those still in-country, as well as how the Council of Europe's European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR) Afghanistan Task Force is helping to assist those students starting anew.

Come with us as we compare and contrast vocational education across the globe. How are different countries educational systems influenced by the separation of vocational education from more formally academic routes? Are national education administrators attending to popular, economic, or business demand changes? We'll present on and lead discussion of a few disparate cases.

The Swedish upper secondary education is in the middle of a new reform. The new education system that will be in place from 2025 can be seen as a return to the structure that was in place before 1997. We will present the system that is currently in place, as well as the new one. The way that the Swedish education system and admission system is structured places a lot of emphasis on specific entry requirements, in the form of specific courses that the student needs to have passed to qualify for specific higher education programs. We believe this makes recognition of foreign upper secondary education qualifications uniquely challenging in Sweden. To grant foreign applicants access to study programs, they need to be assessed as fulfilling the same specific entry requirements as Swedish applicants. To do this, credit evaluators in Sweden compare the curricula of Swedish upper secondary education to curricula of foreign upper secondary education. We will give an overview of the higher education admission system in Sweden, the challenges with comparing curricula, and how we have attempted to give applicants with foreign education a fair and transparent admission process.

Digitization and technology have improved document and data management and reduced occurrences of fraud. The potential exists to encourage greater trust in the verification and assessment process for admission and transfer. However, the technology evolutions are fraught with unintended challenges that undermine the use of digital documents in assessment practice. This session will provide a Canadian case study of digital evolution and examine the adoption barriers, opportunities and implications for college and university policies and practices. It presents research that will be included in a soon-to-be-published academic book that examines different ways to ensure the trusted chain of custody of documents used for access to education and the workplace. During the session, audience participants will be encouraged to explore the area further and consider options for enabling trusted adoption of digital documents.

Interested in getting more involved in TAICEP, but not sure where to start? Volunteering to serve on a committee is a great way way to contribute to the organization and become a leader in the industry. 

First grab your coffee and breakfast treats, then join us to meet the hardworking members of TAICEP's Committees & Task Forces. A panelist from each group will give an overview of their committee/task force projects and activities this year. Attendees will have a chance to sit at a table with a committee/task force that they hope to join.

We look forward to meeting you!

TEN!!!! Either you are watching a televised dancing competition or wondering what to do with the ever more common Indian 10-point CGPA grading system. Join this session for a practical guide to reading, understanding and evaluating university documents from India. Using an approach based heavily on sample credentials, we will discuss grade conversions, credit systems, and handling failed examination attempts.

The language of credential evaluation is filled with nuance. Interpretations, context, and linguistic "false friends" all come together to make a crowded alphabet soup. As evaluation professionals, we rely on original language documents (frequently accompanied by translations), but our clients and students often read our reports in a language not fully familiar to them. How do the words we use impact the ways their educational achievements are understood by both evaluators and end users? Who is responsible for defining the language of international credential evaluation? This session is designed to be an interactive exercise and some word games and challenges will happen! Together, participants will have an opportunity to dissect, debate, and renew our understanding of the differences and similarities between grades and assessments, qualifications and awards, credits and units, and more.

The process of recognition of international education credentials in Azerbaijan is carried out by the Education Quality Assurance Agency. The Agency aspires to reduce the human aspect in the application process and provide applicants with a functional and transparent service. In 2018, the Agency launched an online application system for the credential evaluation process and established a digital archive of recognized qualifications in 2019. The online application system enables candidates to submit all required documents for evaluation and to get frequent updates on the status of their applications. Additionally, the online application mechanism allows credential evaluators to complete the evaluation process within 3-4 weeks. The Agency plans to introduce new and revised legislation to the foreign qualifications recognition procedure in order to implement best practices in credential evaluation. To support the labor market, the Agency established the "Candidate Bank" of the owners of recognized qualifications that allows the employers to make direct contact with qualified candidates.

Assessing credentials, especially those issued by private higher education institutions, can be a daunting task when lacking information. On top of that, evaluators need to keep their eyes open at all times for fraudulent documents. Things can get even more difficult when evaluating credentials from crisis-sensitive countries that are facing challenges such as civil wars, natural disasters, coup d'Etats, … This session provides valuable information on three countries that are currently facing such challenges: Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea-Conakry. After a short introduction of the country, the current situation and the system of education, we will share tips and information that will be helpful when evaluating credentials from these countries: -information on the accreditation of private higher education institutions; -tips and tricks on how to assess credentials from these countries; -concrete advice on how to spot fake documents and verify the authenticity of credentials. After each country presentation, a time slot will be dedicated for questions and answers.

Reading and evaluating credentials written in Slavic languages can be a challenge. As the recent humanitarian crisis in Ukraine presents the world with the large influx of refugees and student mobility, the institutions in Europe and the US take practical steps to support students in meeting their educational needs. This general session is designed to help registrars and admission officers gain knowledge and skills necessary to successfully interpret credentials written in Russian and Ukrainian languages.

Phil Dupont, Head of Partnerships at Qualification Check, will look at the different methods of international verification, and how they deliver the verification rates, turn-around times and quality of response needed for accurate credential evaluation. He will look at the need to understand national data privacy laws, documentary requirements and how local expertise is essential in delivering a fast, world-class service. He will touch on how emerging digital credentials will enhance the evaluation process with reference to current case studies.

QQI ensures that learners achieve qualifications that are valued nationally and internationally and provide trusted information on the qualifications included in the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). Only universities, institutes of technology and QQI currently make awards on the NFQ. However, for the first time, QQI will be including the awards of other awarding bodies in the Framework, including awards of international, professional and sectoral bodies. This will ensure learners have greater choice of, and confidence in qualifications, while learning already being undertaken is recognized and quality assured. QQI will outline the proposed approach to approve this new type of awarding body and to evaluate the proposed awards. This will focus on how existing practices need to be modified for this new function; and how this new role for QQI sits within its existing structures & the wider sector. The session will require participants to work in small groups to consider the approach proposed by QQI and to provide feedback and share experience to inform and improve the scheme before launching.

How can you deal with upper secondary qualifications from systems combining a vocational study orientation with access to higher education? In the context of growing labor market demand for high school qualifications in the field of healthcare and industry, the Swedish Council for Higher Education started issuing recognition statements aiming for both access to higher education and the labor market in 2017. As the Swedish higher education system has rather specific requirements for the assessment that are quite different from those of employers, the combination was not obvious at the beginning. After five years of testing this method, we are now ready to share with Taicep members how we go about it with some concrete examples. We aim for a session that provides space also for a broader exchange on varying approaches in the field of assessing qualifications with dual purpose.

NOTE: This optional event requires a separate, paid ticket, available on the conference registration page. Your event ticket includes the following: 

• Bag lunch
• Coach transportation between the conference hotel and university
• Guided campus tour
• Special presentation and meet & greet at the university International Office

Founded in 1451, The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. The University has three main campuses and we will visit the Gilmorehill campus, located in the west end of Glasgow, 3 miles from the city centre.

Event Schedule

• 12:15PM Collect bag lunch and eat immediately following conference closing
• 12:45PM Board coach bus outside hotel lobby
• 1:00 PM Coach departs the conference hotel for the University of Glasgow 
• 1:30 PM Arrival at the University of Glasgow
• 1:45 PM Meet and greet by University staff who will escort our group to the our meeting room
• 2:00 PM Presentation by University International office followed by an informal Q & A session
• 3:00 PM Guided tour of the ancient part of the University 
• 4:00 PM Option to stay in the West end of the city to explore! (please note this will require you to make your own transport arrangements back to your hotel)
• 4:30 PM Coach departs the University to return to the conference hotel.