On May 2, 2024, the Ministry of Education and Training released Circular No.07/2024/TT-BGDDT (Circular 07) to amend and supplement Article 7 and replace Appendixes II and III of Circular No.13/2021/TT-BGDDT (Circular 13), stipulating the conditions, steps, and authority to recognize a qualification issued by an international educational institute to use in Vietnam.
According to Circular 13, applicants for this procedure provide necessary information about their papers on the e-Portal for public services of the Education and Training Ministry or local Education and Training departments (authorized to recognize these qualifications).
However, Article 7 of this Circular asks that the applicants have to display sufficient evidences, including copies of their qualifications, appendixes of these qualifications if available, and corresponding academic result reports, all with a notarized translation into Vietnamese. These papers must be submitted in person or via the post.
Within 20 business days, competent authorities in charge of this procedure will return the results to the applicants. In the case that more time is needed for the verification of the qualifications from foreign educational institutes, the result return date is no longer than 45 business days from the date of receipt of application documents.
Circular 07 amends Article 7 above in that all steps are now done online and are integrated into the National Public Service e-Portal. Therefore, applicants only need to scan requested documents and upload them onto this e-Portal. Besides, the new circular provides detailed instructions for all available options to fulfill this procedure conveniently. The appendix about the recognition form of Circular 07 is much simpler and clearer as well.
Prof. Dr. Huynh Van Chuong – Head of the Education Quality Management Agency (under the Education and Training Ministry) – shared that the most updated content in Circular 07 lies in amendments for Article 7 and replacements of Appendixes II and III of Circular 13, making it much faster and more convenient for people in need to have their foreign-issued qualifications recognized to be used in Vietnam.
He further informed that his agency is now in charge of recognizing bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees as well as qualifications of the same levels. The directors of local departments of Education and Training are responsible for recognizing junior high and high school diplomas and certificates of finishing general education programs.
For localities to have enough preparation time for necessary tools (software, servers, corresponding hardware), Circular 07 comes into effect as of November 2, 2024.
From July 1, 2024, the procedure to recognize a foreign-issued qualification can be done with one VNeID account normally used to carry out online public services. Applicants for this procedure follow all steps of this procedure completely online on the National e-Portal for Public Services. They can upload requested documents onto this portal and then pay fees online, keep track of paper processing, as well as rate this procedure or provide feedback after use.
Head of the Department of Student Affairs in the Industrial University of HCMC Dr. Nguyen Trung Nhan shared that this improvement in recognizing an international qualification is a great effort of the Education and Training Ministry in its digital transformation process. This is absolutely consistent with global trends and creates more convenience for stakeholders (qualification issuers and holders, as well as employers). It is also not too complicated to prepare for this procedure to fully go online.
According to the Legal Inspection Department of Vietnam National University-HCM, several educational institutes in Vietnam now have a high need to recruit human resources with postgraduate qualifications, many of which are issued by international organizations. Formerly, the procedure to recognize these papers takes much time and is rather complicated. This change provides more convenience for both recruiters and job applicants.
Statistics from the Center for Diploma Recognition (under the Quality Management Agency – Ministry of Education and Training) reveal that from January 2017 to November 2023, there were nearly 37,500 application forms for the recognition of foreign-issued qualifications. Of these, 95.26 percent were approved.
The issuance places with the most applications for qualification recognition are the UK, Australia, China, the US, Russia, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China), and Thailand. Any applications submitted before the effective date of Circular 07 follow the requirements in Circular 13.
