From May 1, 2024, the agreement on automatic recognition of higher education qualifications between Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg has entered into force. This means that higher education qualifications obtained in these countries will be mutually recognized automatically without any additional procedures.
On September 14, 2021, Latvia together with Lithuania and Estonia (Baltic countries) signed the agreement on automatic recognition of higher education qualifications with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (Benelux countries). Latvia ratified the agreement already in 2022, and with the ratification process now completed by all the involved parties, the agreement has taken effect on May 1, 2024.
Legally binding mutual agreements on the automatic recognition of higher education qualifications were initially concluded separately in the Benelux Union and among the Baltic states. However, seeking to expand the automatic recognition of higher education qualifications within the European Higher Education Area, these regional agreements were merged into a multilateral agreement. With the agreement coming into effect, the mobility of students will be promoted, which will facilitate the continuation of studies, as well as the search for work abroad, thereby benefiting students and residents by enhancing their ability to move freely.
“This multilateral agreement is one of the milestones and future investments that will strengthen the European Higher Education’s Area in the long term, thus creating a simpler and more efficient system with a set of unified criteria for the parties involved,” expresses Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša.
To mark this important event, a ceremonial event will be held in Brussels on May 13, inviting other European countries to join the agreement to provide the same opportunities for their students. Every country that has ratified the Lisbon Recognition Convention and is part of the European Higher Education Area can apply to join this agreement.
Recognition of educational documents in the European region is based on the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (Lisbon Recognition Convention) adopted on April 11, 1997, by the Council of Europe and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), along with its supplementary documents on the recognition of qualifications.
On November 26, 2018, the Council of the European Union adopted the Recommendation on promoting the automatic mutual recognition of higher education and general secondary education qualifications and the outcomes of study periods spent abroad, which envisages taking necessary measures by 2025 to achieve automatic mutual recognition of higher education qualifications and the outcomes of learning periods abroad at the higher education level. On 14 May 2023, the Council adopted Conclusions on further steps to achieve the automatic mutual recognition of qualifications and learning outcomes, committing to further efforts to achieve the goal set in 2018. The Ministers of Education of the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process) have repeatedly called to progress towards the long-term goal and introduce the automatic recognition of comparable academic degrees, as affirmed in the Paris Communiqué of 2018 and the Rome Communiqué of 2020. However, currently there is no unified practice of automatic recognition of educational documents and academic degrees within the European Higher Education Area and the European Union.
In Latvia, the examination of education documents/qualifications is carried out by the Academic Information Center. Based on conducted evaluation, the foreign education document is equated to the corresponding educational document or qualification in the specified country; in the case of Latvia, it is determined which document issued in Latvia it is equivalent to. With the entry into force of the agreement on the automatic recognition of higher education qualifications, the administrative and financial burden of the AIC will be reduced, as it will not be necessary to evaluate the qualifications issued by higher education institutions in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well as it will not need to evaluate the documents issued in Estonia and Lithuania before the Baltic states' recognition treaty came into effect.