Diploma recognition
Oct 09, 2009
Brazilian students, who obtained an undergraduate, master, or doctor degree in the Netherlands, must have the diploma evaluated by a Brazilian Higher Education Institution in order to have the degree recognized in Brazil. The purpose of this page is to explain, step by step, how students with a Dutch degree must proceed in case they need to have their diplomas recognized in Brazil.
Step 1 – Translate all documents to Portuguese and authorize them with a seal of the Brazilian Consulate in the Netherlands.
All documents concerning your degree, such as, the diploma, the school report, programme content, transcriptions, literature, etc. must be translated to Portuguese and submitted to the Brazilian Consulate in the Netherlands for approval.
Visit the website of the Brazilian Embassy in The Hague and the Brazilian Consulate in Rotterdam for more information and contact details: http://www.brazilianembassy.nl/index.htm
Step 2 – Contact a Brazilian Higher Education Institution and submit your documents for recognition.
Unlike other countries, in Brazil, the HEI´s have complete autonomy to decide whether or not to recognize a diploma from a foreign university.
For undergraduate diplomas, the applicant must submit the documents to a public HEI that teaches the same undergraduate course or a similar one.
For master and doctor degrees, the student has to submit the translated documents to an HEI, private or public, that has a similar programme evaluated and approved by CAPES, which is the organ of the Brazilian Ministry of Education responsible for regulating the graduate programmes in Brazil. The chosen HEI must have a programme in an equivalent level or above the diploma of the applicant.
Step 3 – A fee must be paid
The applicant who wishes to have his diploma recognized must pay an administrative fee to the HEI that will evaluate his documentation. This fee may vary from institution to institution.
Step 4 – Wait for the response of the Brazilian HEI
The Brazilian HEI will set an evaluation committee to evaluate the documents submitted by the student. The main criteria analysed by this committee are: total course hours, similarity of the programme, and the applicant´s final dissertation.
If there are any doubts about the similarity of the courses, the Brazilian HEI may require examinations to test the knowledge of the applicant.
The deadline for the Brazilian HEI to answer the request of the applicant is six months after the date of the entry of the documentation.
If the chosen Brazilian HEI does not recognize the diploma, the applicant can try other universities, until his diploma is recognized.
Step 5 – If there are no more possibilities of recognition among the Brazilian HEI´s, the applicant may appeal to the Brazilian National Council of Education.
This step 5 is only for master and doctor diploma applicants. For more information about the Brazilian National Council of Education, visit: http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12449&Itemid=754
There are no bilateral agreements concerning the automatic diploma recognition in Brazil. Therefore, the rules are the same for all countries.