Recognition of educational qualifications

School-leaving qualifications or vocational training completed abroad can be recognised in full or in part. There are a variety of recognition and credit transfer procedures, depending on which school-leaving qualification, academic achievement or vocational training is to be recognised. The most important procedures and processing centres are listed below.

Further information can be found on the websites listed below.
 

Recognition of domestic and foreign educational qualifications

If you would like to have your educational certificates evaluated for school or vocational purposes, you can contact the Central Office for the Recognition of Domestic and Foreign Educational Certificates, which is located at the State Education Authority in Darmstadt.

The Central Office is responsible for the following recognition procedures:

• the school-based assessment of foreign educational qualifications,
• the recognition of domestic educational certificates, i.e. the determination of the equivalence of domestic previous educational certificates with the Hessian Fachhochschulreife (this includes the recognition of the Fachhochschulreife for graduates of German schools abroad) and
• the recognition of educational certificates from the former GDR.

Applicants who wish to study at a Hessian university should contact the International Office of the respective university or the respective university of applied sciences.
 

Other recognition bodies

In addition to those mentioned, there are many other procedures that are not handled by the Central Office in Darmstadt, but by other departments of the State of Hesse or federal authorities. An overview can be found in a guide that can be accessed from the website of the Central Office.