Teachers always advise students to cite sources on projects or papers. Sources used for research must be accurate, relevant and reputable. This same logic applies to credential evaluation. When individuals apply for an evaluation and send their documents, credential evaluators must use every tool in their toolkit to reach a fair and defensible conclusion; doing so may be the key that gets someone a job, a visa, a license or an admissions slot.
So how do evaluators reach these life-altering decisions? Fortunately, people interested in global education have been compiling data on 200+ countries, territories and systems for decades. Credential evaluation firms like IEE have built large resource libraries containing information from government agencies, universities, and education-focused organizations. This content provides critical and even cutting-edge insights into the education systems of different countries. This article will share research resources utilized by credential evaluators to help you get your educational story told and validated in a new country.
The Basics: What Are We Looking For?
When examining credentials, evaluators look for a few specific points. It often starts with the country. Identifying the country of education opens the door to a specific and unique system in which the individual was educated. From there, we can more easily extract other relevant information.
One of the easiest things to identify is the credential title; whether it’s called a Bakalavr, a Licenciatura or a Maîtrise, the title is the legal name of the qualification in the country. Next, an evaluator needs to confirm the admission requirement (what previous qualification was required to enter the program being evaluated) and duration (the minimum length of time the program takes). Then, an evaluator may seek the field of study, which is often indicated on a transcript or degree certificate. Additionally, evaluators identify the awarding institution and its recognition status to verify that the institution has the authority to award degrees. Lastly, an evaluator may search for information about professional or academic rights after graduation (i.e. what level of education are they eligible to apply for once they have completed a given credential or what regulated occupation are they permission to practice).
Once this information is found, an evaluator can confidently recommend an appropriate US equivalency and issue a credential evaluation report. But in trying to make these determinations, it begs the question: where are we to look?
Primary Sources
In research, it’s often best to start with primary sources, as they carry credibility and most directly describe the topic at hand. Therefore, in the research phase, evaluators will search for program information on the issuing institution’s website. This may be the site of a university, college, academy or school, with a URL usually ending with “.edu”. This is a good spot to verify program duration, admission requirements, and the minimum number of credits or hours needed for graduation. In the event a qualification comes from a significantly different time period, and time-specific information is required, evaluators will frequently use the Wayback Machine to get the most accurate evidence from the approximate time of individual’s enrollment.
For trustworthy information about institutional accreditation, evaluators will look at webpages, lists and publications from the educational authority in the country from which the qualification hails. This may be a Ministry, Council or Agency, and will give the best description of the institution’s status. Proof of accreditation is critical, as it demonstrates that an institution adheres to the quality assurance standards of the country’s established authorities, and that it has the power to award the credential.
National or provincial governments may also have a site containing a qualifications framework. This is the formal structure of credentials in a country; it demonstrates learning outcomes at each level and shows what is needed to advance to subsequently higher levels of education.
All of these serve as great launch points for building a credential evaluation. However, members of the international education sector collect and present content on education systems, international credentials and equivalency recommendations, too. Various resources are produced, including blogs, articles, webinars and slideshows. Let’s look at some of the organizations and databases used regularly by international education professionals to aid with credential analysis.
Trade Organizations
International education is a robust field. Due to this, many organizations devoted to it exist. One is NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a non-profit organization that has spent decades serving as the premier network of international education professionals. This association promotes international education as a means of facilitating global exchange, understanding and scholarship. With thousands of members, the organization holds conferences, allows networking between professionals, and, most importantly for organizations like IEE, provides resources useful for credential evaluation. One of the most informative publications is the NAFSA Guide to Educational Systems Around the World. This comprehensive series provides details about over 200 countries and territories, including each country’s education system, common credentials and their details (from duration to admission requirements), grading scales and oversight authorities. Furthermore, these guides may reveal relevant historical information to help evaluators understand credentials from different time periods. This is important because education systems across the world frequently experience changes due to policy updates or global events that impact education. NAFSA’s guides are effective for helping admissions counselors, administrators and credential evaluators get a basic introduction to a specific country’s education system.
A similar organization dedicated to global exchange and promotion of international education is TAICEP, the Association for International Credential Evaluation Professionals. This organization is comprised of individuals in the international education sector specifically dedicated to credential evaluation. The community includes employees of credential evaluation firms, government ministries or agencies, and universities, among others. Members are used to examining academic documents, including transcripts, diplomas and certificates, and generating equivalencies for various purposes; as a result, they aim to learn as much as possible about best practices in the field, from procedures of verifying authenticity to knowledge about the types of credentials they encounter. TAICEP has a plethora of resources that assist credential evaluators with their daily work. This includes an online messaging system, regular webinar series for professional development, and even an annual conference. Some credential evaluators at IEE are not only members, but both serve on committees within TAICEP and have presented in webinars and in-person conferences, including at the 2024 conference in Quebec, Canada and the 2025 conference in Cavtat, Croatia.
Other Evaluation Providers
Knowledge sharing between credential evaluation organizations continues beyond trade associations like TAICEP. It is not uncommon for credential evaluators to seek assistance or information from other credential evaluation organizations. In addition to credential evaluation services, companies have put effort into building and publishing resources of their own. Similar to potential clients of credential evaluations, IEE considers the source before utilizing services; one way to determine credibility of a credential evaluation provider and its publications is to verify that they are members of North American Credential Evaluation Services (NACES), another trade organization that regulates ethics and quality in credential evaluation.
One respected source is World Education News and Reviews by World Education Services (WES), a credential evaluation agency and member of NACES. In addition to credential evaluations, WES provides insightful information about education systems, mobility trends, and even original research about issues affecting international education. Credential evaluators find their country education system profiles most useful; they contain relevant data and details about credentials and associated professions, fields of study, quality assurance and accreditation, and sample documents.
Another agency and NACES member with helpful resources is Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE). While delivering credential evaluations of their own, ECE also hosts a free network called the ECE Connection. This site contains news updates, country-specific pages, links to relevant primary sources, and a public message board, where anyone can inquire about credentials, institutions, credit and grade conversions, or ambiguous situations requiring expert assistance.
Databases for our Products
One particular source is not only helpful for country content or equivalencies but is actively being used and cited on IEE reports. That source is the Electronic Database for Global Education (EDGE); this resource is a product of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). Like other resources mentioned above, EDGE has individual pages for countries all over the world, displaying general education overviews for each country, graphics of the educational levels and grading scales. Each page also contains a credentials tab, showing common and possible credentials existing in the country. What’s special about this feature is that each credential has its own page with a description of the qualification, including duration, admission requirement, additional notes with deeper context, and a recommended equivalency. This is of consequence now that IEE has launched its newly formatted immigration reports. Many clients come to IEE to obtain a report for immigration purposes. Further, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has expressed its desire for credential evaluations to comply with the determinations seen on EDGE. Therefore, to consider the needs of the chief recipient of immigration reports while also advocating for our clients, IEE uses EDGE for every evaluation done for immigration. The report itself openly declares that it is following USCIS’ preference for using EDGE to generate a comparable equivalency.
Final Notes on Research in Credential Evaluation:
One of the most essential skills of a credential evaluator involves ability to research. Much of our work involves finding and interpreting complex information in a way that makes sense to the intended recipient, supports the client and justifies our conclusions. Accuracy is an extremely critical element of credential evaluation, but evaluators at IEE are well-trained international education professionals with access to hundreds of sources, from the materials provided by education ministries to articles, books, essays and databases authored by respected education-oriented organizations. Now that you can see the underwriting that builds your credential evaluation, we invite you to apply for one at IEE, with the assurance that it is being done with proper application of knowledge and stringent sourcing of evidence.