UNVEILING THE HIDDEN INFORMATION IN CREDENTIALS: A PROPOSAL TO INTRODUCE A “SUPPLEMENT TO HIGHER EDUCATION DIPLOMAS”

As the world shrinks and becomes increasingly integrated with regard to the diffusion of technologies, the flow of educated personnel and the requirements both of higher education institutions and of employers, the twin questions of educational mobility and of mobility with regard to employment, are becoming increasingly important. A major barrier to the granting of equivalences is lack of information about the meaning and the value of academic credentials, diplomas, and degrees despite the creation of information centres in various countries and the formulation of various international equivalence agreements, including the Unesco regional conventions on equivalence and the recognition of diplomas and degrees of higher education. Programmes diversify; they undergo rapid change; there ¦ are so many exceptional cases, that general information devices cannot keep up to date. What the authors propose and describe is a supplement to be granted with each diploma, the items within it being sufficiently standardized so as to make the value of each corresponding diploma and credential transparent enough to facilitate the granting of equivalences.