In a European context favourable towards the digitisation of data and the automatic recognition of qualifications, the ENIC-NARIC Centre France has, since last year, participated in the “Q-Entry” project (International Database on Higher Education Entry Qualifications). Financed by the European Commission, this project unites five ENIC-NARIC centres: Italian, Latvian, Norwegian, Irish and French, and will continue until February 2020.
“Q-Entry” aims to create a secure database that unites all qualifications that lead to higher education in around one hundred countries. This will contain sample qualification templates as well as additional information concerning the registered certifications. The emphasis will be placed on the qualifications currently in place for each country at the end of secondary school studies. The database will also include older templates that emerged after the Bologna Process was introduced.
In accordance with the project’s activity programme, during the 2018-2019 winter, the ENIC-NARIC Centre France transmitted all of the French baccalaureate templates that it had in its possession. A test database has been created, including templates for baccalaureate-equivalent qualifications for the 55 ENIC-NARIC network members. It will be tested in May, as part of the project meeting in Ireland, then presented in June during the annual ENIC-NARIC network meeting. The templates from around fifty non-network member countries will be added in the second phase of the project.
In addition to recognition centres, the platform is expected to be accessible to universities around the world, to facilitate the recognition of qualifications that lead to higher education and, as a result, international student mobility.