Recognition of foreign higher education and qualifications

Rector’s Directive 2/2023

Annotation:

This regulation, which has a university-wide scope, governs the procedure for the recognition of foreign higher education and qualifications at the Prague University of Economics and Business.

Article 1
Introductory provisions

1. This Directive establishes a binding internal procedure for the recognition of foreign higher education and qualifications pursuant to Act No.111/1998 Coll. on Higher Education and on Amendments and Supplements to Other Acts (the Higher Education Act), as amended (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) at the Prague University of Economics and Business (hereinafter referred to as “VŠE”).
2. This Directive does not apply to professional recognition of professional qualifications for the purposes of the exercise of regulated professions carried out pursuant to Act No 18/2004 Coll., on the recognition of professional qualifications and other competences of nationals of Member States of the European Union and of certain nationals of other States and on the amendment of certain acts (Act on the recognition of professional qualifications), as amended, or pursuant to specific legislation governing the recognition of professional qualifications. Furthermore, it does not apply to the procedure for issuing decisions under Act No. 117/1995 Coll., on State Social Support, as amended, and Act No. 155/1995 Coll., on Pension Insurance, as amended, on the status of study at a higher education institution abroad on an equal footing with study at higher education institutions in the Czech Republic. This Directive also does not apply to the recognition of the results of further education pursuant to Act No. 179/2006 Coll., on the verification and recognition of the results of further education and on the amendment of certain acts (Act on the recognition of the results of further education), as amended.
3. VŠE does not conduct any recognition under the laws mentioned in the previous paragraph. The assessment of previous education in the context of the admission procedure within the meaning of Section 48(4)(d) and (5)(c) of the Higher Education Act is regulated by the Directive Rules for the Assessment of Foreign Education in the Admission Procedure (SR 2/2019).

Article 2
Application for recognition

1. An application for recognition of foreign higher education and qualifications (hereinafter referred to as “application”) shall be submitted on the form attached to this Directive and available on the website of the VŠE.
2. The application must be accompanied by:
   1. a certified copy of a diploma, certificate or similar document issued by a foreign university,
   2. a certified copy of a diploma supplement or similar document issued by a foreign university.
3. Pursuant to Section 90(3) of the Act, the HEI requires that the authenticity of signatures and stamps on original documents be verified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the state in which the higher education institution issuing the document is located, or by the competent foreign authority and the competent embassy of the Czech Republic, unless an international treaty by which the Czech Republic is bound provides otherwise.
4. If all the documents referred to in paragraph 2) are not in Czech or English, an officially certified translation into Czech must also be attached.

Article 3
Payment of the fee

1. Upon receipt of the application, the HEI will notify the applicant at his/her email address of the payment details required to pay the application fee.
2. Non-payment of the fee for the acts connected with the application procedure shall be considered a material defect in the application justifying the suspension or discontinuance of the procedure.

Article 4
Assessment of the application

1. The assessment of the application is carried out by the Legal Department of the Prague University of Economics and Business.
2. If the application contains formal defects, the HEI will invite the applicant to complete the application; at the same time, the procedure may be suspended. If the applicant fails to remedy the formal defects in the application within the time limit laid down in the circumstances of the case, the procedure will be terminated.
3. In the substantive assessment of the application, the following is examined first and foremost:
   1. whether the education in question was provided by an institution that is a recognised part of the country’s higher education system,
   2. whether the formal level of education certified by the education documents submitted is equivalent to the domestic level of education to which it is to be recognised as equivalent,
   3. whether the applicant’s study in question corresponds, in terms of time and study load (number of ECTS credits), to the study required domestically to achieve the degree to which the applicant’s education is to be recognised as equivalent,
   4. whether the applicant’s study in question corresponds in its focus to the study programmes provided by the VŠE, or to the areas of education for which the VŠE has institutional accreditation.
4. In case of doubts about the equivalence of the assessed education, the Legal Department may request the opinion of the guarantor of the closest study programme accredited by the University of Economics through the Vice-Dean for Education of the relevant faculty.
5. In the event of doubts about the equivalence of the assessed education, the VŠE may, in accordance with Section 90(2) of the Act, invite the applicant to provide more detailed evidence of the content of the university studies abroad by submitting the syllabuses of the courses taken.

Article 5
Decisions

1. On the basis of the assessment referred to in Article 4, the Legal Department shall prepare for signature a decision to recognise the equivalence or a decision to reject the application.
2. The Rector is not bound by the opinion of the legal department and the guarantor of the closest study programme in deciding on the application.
3. The Vice-Rector for Studies and Teaching represents the Rector for the purpose of making decisions on the recognition of foreign higher education and qualifications.

Article 6
Transitional and final provisions

1. In deciding on applications, the VŠE is guided primarily by the Higher Education Act and the “Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications Concerning Higher Education in the European Region”, signed on 11 April 1997 in Lisbon, the text of which was published in the Czech language in the Collection of International Treaties No. 60/2000 Coll. (the Lisbon Convention). The application procedure itself is an administrative procedure and the VŠE follows the procedure under Act No. 500/2004 Coll., the Administrative Code, as amended.
2. The Legal Department ensures the registration of proceedings in the Register of Proceedings on Applications for Recognition of Foreign Higher Education and Qualifications maintained by the Ministry of Education.
3. Proceedings on applications submitted before the date of entry into force of this Directive shall be governed by the existing rules.
4. Rector’s Order No. 2/2013 “Recognition of Foreign Higher Education and Qualifications” of 18 February 2013, as amended on 1 September 2016, is repealed.

doc. Ing. Petr Dvořák, Ph.D.
Rector