Qualifications Passport for Refugees

Qualifications Passport for Refugees (QPR) was proposed in 2015 with the intension to put in place a multinational framework to organise and establish a fast-track scheme to evaluate refugees’ educational and training background while still ensuring their mobility.

The methodology

The methodology is a combination of document analysis and the use of a structured interview by qualified and experienced credential evaluators. The goal of the assessment is to map, summarise and present available information about the refugee’s educational level. This will provide credible and reliable information relevant in connection with applications for employment, internships, qualification courses and admission to studies.

The resulting document

The Qualifications Passport for Refugees is a standardised statement, which contains information that describes the highest achieved qualification(s), subject field and other relevant qualifications of the individual. In addition, job experience and language proficiency are described when substantiated and relevant. The idea is that this information should be accepted and easily interpreted both inside and outside the country in which the assessment has taken place, and the document has been issued. In the long term, this methodology can save costs for host countries by facilitating and accelerating the process of recognition of undocumented or non-verifiable foreign qualifications across borders in Europe and beyond.

You can read more about the backgroud, the methology and the resulting document at the bottom of this page.

Implementation

Implementation of the scheme started with a successful testing in Norway in 2016 and establishing of a permanent supplementary interview-based evaluation procedure.

One year later the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR) was tested in Greece in a project run by the Council of Europe, Hellenic Ministry of Education – Research and Religious Affairs, and in cooperation with UNHCR and recognition offices from Greece, Italy, Norway (NOKUT) and the United Kingdom. The first documents were issued in Athens in March 2017.

Given the success of the pilot project, a three-year project was launched in 2018 to develop the EQPR further. The project’s second phase involves the Italian ministry of education as well as the recognition offices of Armenia, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands, in addition to the former partners. The project has so far received financial support from the ministers of education in Greece, Italy and Norway as well as from the Council of Europe.

In 2017–2018, the methodology for the Qualifications Passport for Refugees was successfully tested in Armenia, Germany and Italy within the scope of the Refugees and Recognition – Toolkit project led by NOKUT.

Both the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees and Refugees and Recognition – Toolkit projects are mentioned in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Recommendation on Recognition of Qualifications held by Refugees (adopted in November 2017) as examples of good practice and successful collaborative efforts towards implementation of the Article VII of the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

Small-scale tests of the methodology have also been performed in Armenia, Lebanon in cooperation with MERIC-net and the American University of Beirut, and Turkey.

Experience so far

The experience so far is that the Qualifications Passports do not only serve their main purpose of documenting qualifications but also have a substantial positive side-effect of building capacity in modern recognition methodology in higher education institutions and recognition agencies locally. As a structural element, it supports and strengthens global, regional, national and local initiatives for the inclusion of refugees into society, education systems and the labour market. Increasingly important, the Qualifications Passport is designed to have value across borders, in cases where the forced migrant is being resettled.

Towards a global scheme

There is now a potential to work together within a common framework to make the Qualifications Passports a global scheme for forced migrants. Increased cooperation within the field of recognition may in itself contribute to better systems for global recognition of qualifications. Collaborative efforts create trust between governments, higher education institutions and recognition offices, and trust is the foundation for the entire practice of recognition. With a UNESCO Global Recognition Convention scheduled for adoption in 2019, an introduction of a shared tool to recognise qualifications held by refugees would be timely.

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• Background

  In 2015, with record number of refugees arriving at the European continent, it became evident that the European countries needed to rethink how to deal with recognition and assessment of refugees' qualifications. This is where NOKUT and UK NARIC stepped in.

  In order to support and to ensure that refugees would be able to participate in the labour market and/or pursue further studies in Europe, in September 2015, the two agencies proposed the idea of establishing a scheme called the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees.

  Even though article VII of the Lisbon Recognition Convention states very clearly that all the signatory parties should establish recognition procedures for refugees, displaced persons and persons in refugee-like situations, basically no country had made efforts to meet these obligations given in the convention which was signed more than 20 years ago.

  Bearing in mind the legacy of the Nansen Passport for Refugees, set up in 1922, our idea was to establish a multinational framework to organise and establish a fast-track scheme to evaluate refugees’ educational and training background while still ensuring their mobility around Europe.

• The methodology

  The goal of the qualification assessment is to map, summarize and present available information on the applicant’s educational level, work experience and language proficiency in Qualifications Passport for Refugees. The document is intended to provide information that can be relevant in connection with applications for employment or internship, qualification courses and admission to studies. Based on collected information about the applicant’s educational background, work experience and language proficiency, the applicant also receives individual advice and guidance about the road ahead.

  The minimum requirements for the evaluation is a combination of assessment of available documentation and a structured interview with the applicant. To ensure equal treatment and quality, we set the following requirements for the implementation:

  – The evaluation of available documentation should be extensive enough to allow the evaluators to use it as a basis for issuing the Qualifications Passport for Refugees. Information in the available educational documentation should correspond to information in a survey form completed by the applicant. Furthermore, the documentation can be compared to available documents and case information in archives over the previously evaluated cases, and the information can be checked through available sources. Missing documentation can be reconstructed through using previously processed cases and survey forms.

  – The documentation evaluation should be sufficiently documented through completed form for  level placement, copies of documentation from similar cases (where necessary), and written notes with reference to information sources.

  – A structured interview is prepared by the case officer responsible for the case. The interviews can be conducted either face-to-face or online. The interviews are conducted by two experienced evaluators. The purpose of the structured interview is to substantiate the connection between the applicant’s identity, available identity documentation and educational documents, and thus form as complete an image as possible of the applicant’s educational background, work experience and language proficiency, as well as to confirm information obtained through the initial documentation evaluation.

  – Information collected through the structured interview should be thoroughly documented through minutes from the interview, copies of documentation submitted in connection with the interview, among other things.

  – Minutes from the structured interview and documentation evaluation form the basis for issuing the Qualifications Passport.

  – The Qualifications Passport is only issued in those cases where evaluators have sufficient confidence in the educational documents and/or the description of the course of the education.

  – The Qualifications Passport is signed by two evaluators and an evaluation coordinator.

• News Articles | Blog Posts | Press Releases

  2019

  • UNESCO: #Passport4Education: UNESCO’s commitment to ensure right to higher education for the most vulnerable ones

  • University World News: Recognising refugee qualifications – A virtuous circle

  • EAIE: New tools for the credential evaluator’s toolbox

  • Inside Higher Education: Credit Where Credit Is Due

  • NRK: Anwar fikk jobb etter kort tid – lettere med nytt pass for flyktninger (in Norwegian)
  • Ministry of Education and Research (Kunnskapsdepartementet): Øker støtten til kvalifikasjonspass for flyktninger (in Norwegian)
  • Ministry of Education and Research: Increased Support for the Qualifications Passport for Refugees
  • Council of Europe: Education: the Key to Integration (video)
  • Fruit Fame: European Qualifications Passport for Refugees

  
  2018

  • UNESCO: A new Qualifications Passport has global potential for recognising refugees’ qualifications
  • PIE News: European Refugee passport scheme expands
  • Times Higher Education: Qualification recognition is crucial to refugee integration
  • ACEI-Global: An Update on The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees 2018–20: from pilot to scale
  • University World News: European partners to recognise refugees’ qualifications
  • EURACTIV: Europe to extend qualifications ‘passports’ for refugees
  • European Commission European Web Site on Integration; Europe: Phase 2 of the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees launched
  • Khrono: Aller flest søknader om å få godkjent syrisk utdanning (in Norwegian)

  
  2017

  • Council of Europe: First Qualifications Passports for Refugees issued in Greece
  • PIE News: Qualifications passports issued to EU refugees
  • University World News: Recognition of foreign credentials is a moral duty
  • Universitetsavisa: Nokut ble hedret for å ha utviklet utdanningspass (in Norwegian)
  • Universitetsavisa: Samler biter av folks liv og setter dem inn i et system (in Norwegian)
  • EAIE: European Qualifications Passport for Refugees: from vision to reality
  • Universitetsavisa: Håper nytt pass kan hjelpe flyktninger med utdanning (in Norwegian)
  • Council of Europe: European Qualifications Passport for Refugees: Project partners met to discuss key project results
  • Khrono: De første 564 med pass som viser kvalifikasjoner (in Norwegian)

  
  2016

  • IAU Horizons Vol 20 issue 3 (page 39): European Qualifications Passport for Refugees: A multinational approach on recognition of refugees’ qualifications

  
  2015

  • UNIFORUM: NOKUT foreslår europeisk kvalifikasjonspass for flyktninger (in Norwegian)
  • utdanningsnytt.no: Asylsøkere fikk utdanningsråd på Universitetet i Oslo (in Norwegian)
  • På Høyden: Et felles kvalifikasjonspass kan gjøre det lettere for flyktninger å få studieplass (in Norwegian)
• The resulting document

  Qualifications Passport for Refugees is a standardized document, and contains the following information:

  – The person’s name and date of birth (tentatively comments if credible documentation is not present)

  – Picture

  – Name of the highest qualification achieved/completed

  – Subject field

  – Relevant work experience

  – Language experience/proficiency

  – Advice about the road ahead

  The Qualifications Passport for Refugees includes information about the documentation that has formed the basis for the evaluation. Qualifications Passport for Refugees is valid for a limited time, with a validity of three to five years from the date of issue. The aim is that within this timeframe, applicants will have the opportunity to find employment or continue with further studies, improve their language proficiency or, if they still need to, apply for formal recognition or authorization. The validity date cannot be renewed. A limited time frame of validity will also contribute to this procedure not undermining national regular recognition procedures.

  Template for the Qualifications Passport for Refugees (pdf)