Lisbon Convention

[David1477]

I just found out about this convention but as I understand it, academic qualifications from the US/Canada/UK should automatically be recognized in EU countries if they are official.

In my case this is particularly interesting since Germany's anabin database lists UoPeople as an institution without accreditation. However, the university is accredited in the US and legally, NA and RA are equal. The fact that I can get an apostille on the degree verifies the situation that it is an accredited degree as well.

It seems like anabin's evaluation is not in line with the Lisbon convention which both Germany and the US signed. So, could I use this as a legal ground for not accepting an unsuccessful degree evaluation in Germany? Because that's what it seems like to me

[LevelUP]

Do you have a degree from UoPeople (UOP)?

Navigating the legal system in any country is never an easy task.

[artem]

I just found out about this convention but as I understand it, academic qualifications from the US/Canada/UK should automatically be recognized in EU countries if they are official.

In my case this is particularly interesting since Germany's anabin database lists UoPeople as an institution without accreditation. However, the university is accredited in the US and legally, NA and RA are equal. The fact that I can get an apostille on the degree verifies the situation that it is an accredited degree as well.

It seems like anabin's evaluation is not in line with the Lisbon convention which both Germany and the US signed. So, could I use this as a legal ground for not accepting an unsuccessful degree evaluation in Germany? Because that's what it seems like to me

An apostille only certifies the validity of the signatures and seals on the diploma, not the validity of the degree. An apostille-certified diploma proves that it was indeed issued by a specific educational institution and nothing more. It is not related to accreditation verification.

In countries where diplomas are issued by the Ministry of Education, an apostille does indeed prove that the diploma was obtained at a state-approved educational institution. But in the United States and many other countries, this does not work, because diplomas are issued by the educational institutions themselves.

[Kangaroo]

Youve painted a broad brush with your opening statement about recognition, there is nothing automatic about the process and who it actually binds and to what extent is very limited. It somewhat binds the national governments if they are the ones undertaking recognition activities, but if its universities themselves, then the obligation is on the state to basically encourage universities to adhere to it. Similarly for employment, companies are free to make their own assessment...

I doubt Germany is operating outside of its obligations and it would seem to me there might be better paths to consider before going legal? Could it be that the anabin database has not been reflected of UO Peoples accreditation and/or the changes to RA and NA alignment? Could it be the US has not supplied UO People on their list of recognized institutions? Is the distance learning a cultural difference enough that they don't recognise it?

[Tomas]

Your interpretation of Lisbon convention is too strict and narrow, you probably didn't read it.
Btw. USA only signed but didn't ratify it, though for this particular thing it is probably not important.
UoPeople degree is perfectly valid in EU, you can use it on your CV, you can use the bachelor or master title.
However, well, sure, for some other important purposes, it is not good enough.
I am 100% sure you would lose the legal case.
That would be funny, UoPeople degree impossible to use for admission on most RA universities in US, but perfect for further studies on all state universities in EU?

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Btw. I live in EU and our country has the approach that perhaps goes way too much in line with words of Lisbon, copying summary: "recognition can only be refused if the qualification is substantially different from that of the host country". So we had recently a case of someone with degree from top US uni (UC Berkeley, not sure), but he didn't get the recognition here - sure university is more than legit but the degree content was substantially different from those here. (Also it was not 2 years like here but 1 or perhaps 1,5 years masters.)
So it is not like there is an automatic recognition of everything between countries that ratified it.