Central Office for Foreign Education

Status

On behalf of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs the Central Office for Foreign Education is the official agency for the evaluation and recognition of foreign educational qualifications.

The Central Office for Foreign Education provides advisory and information services to the authorities concerned with the recognition of foreign diplomas (e.g. ministries, universities, courts etc.), but has no rights to make decisions itself.

Functions

The main tasks of the Central Office for Foreign Education are

to assess foreign educational qualifications of individual applicants upon request from those authorities that are legally empowered to decide on individual cases of recognition;

to elaborate general equivalence schemes and placement recommendations for foreign educational qualifications; these recommendations may eventually become statutory regulations when approved by a joint resolution of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs;

to assist the authorities concerned in the preparation of bilateral agreements with the governments of foreign countries on the mutual recognition of educational qualifications;

to act as general information and documentation centre with regard to educational systems abroad,

Development and management of a data base for recognition of foreign credentials.

Cooperating authorities

The Central Office for Foreign Education cooperates mainly with the following authorities and institutions:

the ministries of education, science and cultural affairs in each Land of the Federal Republic of Germany. These ministries are concerned e.g. with general questions of access to higher education, the evaluation of foreign teacher qualifications, and the decisions for using foreign academic degrees;
special committees of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs dealing with international aspects of the educational system;
universities and other institutions of education asking for advice in individual cases of admission and placement of applicants with foreign educational qualifications;
foreign institutions requesting information on the German educational system and on the recognition of foreign credits, diplomas and other certificates in the Federal Republic of Germany;
other ministries and subordinate authorities responsible for professional and vocational recognition (e.g. ministries of public health of the Laender);
student exchange associations;
grant awarding agencies

Information sources

In order to perform its various functions the Central Office for Foreign Education is bound to provide a solid basis of reliable and actualized informations.

For this purpose the Central Office

has built up a reference library covering essential aspects of education on an international scale and archives on the German educational system concentrating on regulations concerning courses of study and final examinations;

systematically analyses and evaluates all available literature (periodicals, books, catalogues etc.) dealing with foreign educational systems or general questions regarding society, culture, and the professions;

has established an information network including German embassies abroad and foreign embassies in Germany;

cooperates with the national equivalence centers (NARICs) in the member states of the Council of Europe and the European Union.

Publications

The Central Office for Foreign Education has installed a database www.anabin.de which serves as information medium for evaluation of foreign certificates and containes a multitude of additional data.

In its function as information centre for the directives of the European Union the Central Office publishes information leaflets for the application of the EU directives e.g. for physicians, dentists, veterinarians, pharmacists, architects, and for the two general directives 89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC. These leaflets can be ordered at the Central Office.