ENEB Master Thread

[CYOD]

I just received the ECE evaluation of my Master in Project Management from Universidad Isabel I. It was recognized as "Bachelor degree, major area of study: Project Management". I chose the validation for employment service ($85) so I didn't have to send a transcript or any original, ECE used the "Código Seguro de Verificación (CSV)" in my UI1 diploma to validate it.

Well, two positive takeaways and one negative. Negative first, it didn't evaluate as a U.S. Masters degree. The positives are, it DID evaluate as a U.S. equivalent degree, so $249-$299 for that is one helluva bargain. You earned another valid degree, you learned some new things, and you spent pennies to do it.

Hey, I'm curious: how long did ECE take to turn out your evaluation?

 It was $249 for the ENEB course and $85 for ECE, so under $400 is not bad at all.

ECE took about a week to mail me the document, they have a nice status tracker on their website.

Hi @Dee12 are you planning to pursue course-by-course evaluation as well?

[arad]

I received an email from ICES today regarding evaluation of "titulo propio":

"Thank you for your e-mail below. ICES is familiar with “titulo propio” credentials from Spain. However, we do not provide assessments for “titulo propio” credentials because they are not part of the formal academic system and are not considered to be national (official) academic degrees in Spain."

[Cofffeee]

Its interesting that its considered RA equivalent at USA, while considered 0 in Canada. Doesnt make sense

[Kab]

Its interesting that its considered RA equivalent at USA, while considered 0 in Canada. Doesnt make sense

welcome to the world of international evaluation.... is a little Chaos!

It happen the same with the titles of USA in Europe and how they are evaluated. Some countries here will not accept the American High School as finishing the necessary education to go to Uni (and require advanced placement credits or a A.D.) while others will accept the high school without problem. Same with National accredited titles that are not seen as equivalent Universities degree for some countries which only recognize R.A. as Uni Degree.

I guess that bilateral agreements between countries plays a lot as well in which moment you ask for recognition or equivalency.

In fact this complication of equivalencies motivated the creation of the common education space in Europe (Bologna Process) to have a more or less standard equivalency in the educational systems between countries. Somebody tough that was a complicated business the equivalency in education between neighbor countries.... now bring that to a world level.

Now that the world is more interconnected than ever I guess that in some point we will have to find a way to make a standard for world education... the only problem is that nobody is up to the task until now.

[Cofffeee]

Its not chaos. Its nonsense. It can be evaluated in lesser degree but not to 0

[Dee12]

Its not chaos. Its nonsense. It can be evaluated in lesser degree but not to 0

I asked ECE what was the rationale behind my evaluation and received a lengthy explanation (below). TLDR: you can do a master propio in Spain with a 3-year degree bachelor, so the one-year master is considered the 4th year of post-secondary education here in the states.

"Thank you for your recent request to review the evaluation report, Reference Number XXXXXXXX.


I have reviewed the evaluation report, the information which you provided, and the information and resources used in preparing the evaluation report. Based on this review, I have determined that the conclusions of the evaluation report prepared for you correctly convey our judgment.

The basis for this equivalence is founded on a basic principle of applied comparative education which states the following:

► One year of full-time academic work at any one post-secondary institution is roughly the equivalent of one year of full-time academic work at any other post-secondary institution

ECE accepts and applies this major principle of applied comparative education in our evaluations because if this principle were not accepted as being true there would be no objective basis for comparing educational achievement, whether the institutions are located in the same country or in different countries.

What the application of this principle of applied comparative education means in terms of ECE evaluation policy is that ECE does take many quantitative factors into account when evaluating foreign degrees and comparing them to U.S. degrees.  Minimum admission requirements, a program’s normative full-time duration, and how a particular credential fits into the country’s degree structure are taken into consideration when we make an equivalence recommendation.

National degree frameworks vary from country to country, and when the degree frameworks of two countries are compared, often what such a comparison will show is that the two countries award degree qualifications at different levels or stages of education.  Such is true of a comparison of the Spanish degree framework and the U.S. degree framework.

The years of tertiary education as they relate to a national degree framework not only represent quantitative measurements (volume of study) but they also represent different stages (levels) of education as well. 

Therefore, the number of years of full-time study that a given program represents impacts the ECE equivalence because the years of study serve a dual purpose:  (1) measuring volume of study; and (2) measuring level of study.

In Spain, a Master in Project Management is defined as one year of full-time study and requires any undergraduate degree—including the three-year, short-cycle título de diplomado and título de ingeniero técnico—for admission. 

https://u2384123.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=-2FMy2WuHwfxHF5LkZu2nzJY0Vwi8aPvcSPH-2FmvHdQdnnkYlNjQKIXJzMzt1wPGQ5JDd45jV42IWrs0P0dR1WMm-2Bq1YjQrjzeZdvDqIkubUQo-3DE2ng_-2FCSPlV-2F5obI-2FvJGGdg7bbigdTHnx1aHWYpUQ7cHZNbYlJz-2BJJtbxTgRW2etqTvY986pTTh6R9SgomOR0MKRvjzaYdNRuwzoCW4iRbL-2FkUeFQqzgfyJ-2BC1lvEq0nnSzB8iG4ux9YLJikUVJ4A4xXpRvxQ5C-2BTNIYvVh0YDFosZOdebi4lh97FaP3LylNJWIWO-2FWpeFW-2F4rHWlnyVoTNorgRmNvHHPGZCSDYYj3SSDe68-3D

Because the minimum admission requirement is any three-year short-cycle degree, the Master in Project Management represents the FOURTH year of post-secondary education in Spain.

As you may be aware, the fourth year of post-secondary education in the U.S. represents the final year of study in a bachelor degree program and is referred to as the “senior year.”

Therefore, ECE considers all of the courses in the Master in Project Management to be equivalent to senior level coursework in a U.S. bachelor degree program.  By extension, ECE considers the Master in Project Management---which represents the culmination of four years of university study in Spain---to be equivalent to a U.S. bachelor degree.

This is because all bachelor degree programs in the U.S. are structured the same in that they all require a minimum of four years (eight semesters) of full-time university-level study, whether they are offered by the highest or lowest ranked university (please refer to the U.S. Department of Education and National Center for Education Statistics: https://u2384123.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=-2FMy2WuHwfxHF5LkZu2nzJYCd5hbGY8LouyT7Jq5VLzrlTYUBitTT0TOK3t8MCLzL1TvnsU45dnAM5wvpoZrPhg-3D-3DJicO_-2FCSPlV-2F5obI-2FvJGGdg7bbigdTHnx1aHWYpUQ7cHZNbYlJz-2BJJtbxTgRW2etqTvY9UK-2BsL1qRgsXZ3w6nVZ1iSKE1-2BjyuZpx4tDGpd7uSrESoVlRpXl-2FxVLsbP1nxF08L8znDd428b7ttSM-2FB3bhmP5HBJoiKr2BAMLeCpNHWWBSH4bcB7H1aIRfU2ezraag62OIEAaIG0tZGtaGTt6s6shHJ-2B-2F3i1YCqnVi51QjjCdk-3D ).

By extension, the U.S. Department of Education and National Center for Education Statistics have defined a U.S. master degree as follows:

“Master's degree: A degree awarded for successful completion of a program generally requiring 1 or 2 years of full-time college-level study beyond the bachelor's degree.” (https://u2384123.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=-2FMy2WuHwfxHF5LkZu2nzJYCd5hbGY8LouyT7Jq5VLzrlTYUBitTT0TOK3t8MCLzLMhugAsteWe95Fwg0BzG9oQ-3D-3DyXRN_-2FCSPlV-2F5obI-2FvJGGdg7bbigdTHnx1aHWYpUQ7cHZNbYlJz-2BJJtbxTgRW2etqTvY9rM7jj1wMeq0avmHW1zoycI4c9N90Y8BEWWA-2BFox3U6m-2BJAmlZwXGxAM7jMadeOKWbfKsXB-2BLt-2FG-2FU9W8ynJMF2a-2B-2FpK96Kwe1TDECc-2BD8kVNZBaJ2PRjGhGh9jm-2FZ6qsPQGnQ36qtQrt1jlA-2FVWzSWxdYys5nP-2BeVgwwo30wXbA-3D )

Therefore, graduate-level study in the U.S.---which builds upon a preceding 4-year bachelor degree in all cases in the United States---would only commence AFTER student begins the 5th year of university-level study.

Because the Master in Project Management only represents four year-level courses and does not include any fifth-year level courses, ECE does not consider any of the courses in the Master in Project Management to be the U.S. equivalent of graduate level study.  By extension, because none of the courses in the Master in Project management are equivalent to graduate-level study in the U.S., ECE does not consider it to be equivalent to a U.S. master degree.

I hope that information clarifies the evaluation criteria and policies that determined the results of your evaluation."

[Cofffeee]

I consider ECE evaluation is actually good outcome

[Kab]

I asked ECE what was the rationale behind my evaluation and received a lengthy explanation (below). TLDR: you can do a master propio in Spain with a 3-year degree bachelor, so the one-year master is considered the 4th year of post-secondary education here in the states.

After reading the rationale make sense to me. More after being from Spain an having, many years ago, had a 3 year degree as too short to be a bachelor.... ignoring content of the studies simply because was a 3 year degree... and in US it needs to be a 4 years degree. I was astonish since other countries had it evaluated as a Bachelor without a problem. So young and without majors needs to have it recognized as a bachelor I let it go.

What I said before, is necessary a world standard...

Edit: Does not mean that I agree.

[novadar]

The details from ECE are very informative. This further lends support to the idea that another evaluator may consider a Universidad Isabel/ENEB Masters equivalent to a US Regionally Accredited Masters. I think this is the case because there have certainly been cases where 3 year Bachelor degrees have been deemed equivalent to US 4 year Bachelor degrees. I know of a few Indian students who have entered US Masters programs with 3 year Bachelor degrees.

It is just a matter of time before someone presents their Universidad Isabel/ENEB Masters to an NACES evaluator and receives an equivalence report at the Masters level.

Tangentially related - To me the only of these Universidad Isabel/ENEB programs to consider as an American would be the MBA, why? Because at least at face value your earned credential matches a common credential in the US -- the MBA. The others by their nomenclature do not exist. If one did not desire to go through all of these equivalency hurdles and they had the MBA, they could just leave it at that. A "Master in Project Management" or ""Master in Management and Team Management" have no counterparts - more explaining to do.

[eLearner]

The details from ECE are very informative. This further lends support to the idea that another evaluator may consider a Universidad Isabel/ENEB Masters equivalent to a US Regionally Accredited Masters. I think this is the case because there have certainly been cases where 3 year Bachelor degrees have been deemed equivalent to US 4 year Bachelor degrees. I know of a few Indian students who have entered US Masters programs with 3 year Bachelor degrees.

Exactly. I have also seen some U.S. schools offer bridge programs for this very purpose.

My questions to the evaluation would be:

1. If the decisions are based on any 3-year degree qualifying for admission, doesn't that ignore the fact many people (particularly from the U.S.) are entering with 4-year degrees, even graduate degrees?

2. Is the decision then based on the admission requirement or the actual work in the classes being taken?

Schools have some flexibility on who they admit. People have been admitted to graduate programs in the U.S. (rarely) and other countries (more often) without an undergrad degree. That has nothing to do with whether or not the courses offered in that graduate program are graduate level courses.