Supporting the academic credential assessment community in Canada

In Canada, there are six academic credential assessment services, close to 300 recognized universities and colleges, some 500 regulatory bodies and professional associations, along with employers, private career colleges and training institutes, apprenticeship offices, and other organizations that play a role in assessing and recognizing credentials earned abroad.

As such, there is a great need to support the consistency and portability of credential assessments, as well as the capacity of organizations performing assessments to facilitate recognition of the qualifications of internationally educated students and professionals who want to study or work in Canada.

To this end, CICIC has undertaken a number of important initiatives through the Building Bridges project, including those that support consistency and portability, such as:

• the Pan-Canadian Quality Assurance Framework for the Assessment of International Academic Credentials (QAF)
• Terminology Guides for Academic Credential Assessment in Canada
• Directory of Comparability Assessment Outcomes for specific countries
• Step-by-step guide on assessing academic credentials

To support capacity building, CICIC's Building Bridges initiatives included:

• Competency Profile for an Academic Credential Assessor
• webinars for assessors
• development of an on-line distance education program

In earlier stages of the Building Bridges project, CICIC also undertook research in the field of credential recognition, including:

• Pan-Canadian Quality Standards in International Credential Evaluation: Final Report
• A Feasibility Study for a Distance Education Program for Canadian Academic Credential Assessors
• A Feasibility Study for a Web-Based Application to Share Assessment Results, Resources, and Methodologies on Academic Credential Assessments
• Substantial Agreement – Academic Credential Assessment in Canada: Implementation of the Lisbon Recognition Convention and Preparation for the UNESCO Global Convention

 

This work has been supported by the Government of Canada's Foreign Credential Recognition Program.

For more information on tools and resources for international academic credential assessors, consult the assessor portal.