Application Procedures

UK ENIC deals with all applications using the same fundamental approach, to ensure that they are treated as fairly and efficiently as possible. This process includes the following steps:

  1. Your documentation is analysed by our Information Officer(s) who determine(s) whether correct and/or required information has been provided
  2. If further documentation or information is needed, we will request this from you
  3. We will make a decision as to whether assessment can be provided
  4. Qualifications are evaluated in accordance with our guidelines.

We carry out regular quality checks, in order to ensure that our assessments have been carried out in a fair and accurate manner.

If we need to conduct further research, or need further information, further additional steps may apply:

  • We may contact appropriate authorities (e.g. a Ministry of Education or Vocational Council) in order to obtain further information on a given award. You will be informed if the process will take longer than the standard timescale
  • We will follow up with those authorities regularly, until information is received
  • Once we have received a response, we will consider the validity of the information received: if the response is insufficient to provide an evaluation, further information requests are considered
  • We will then evaluate the qualification in accordance with the new information and in the context of previous evaluations for the country in question
  • The conclusions of these cases are then presented to senior evaluators for: (a) approval of the individual evaluation; and (b) building the award-specific data into the system information range.

You can read more about our evaluation methodology here

Requests for Clarification, Requests for Reassessment, and Appeals

You may have questions or concerns about your assessment. If this is the case, please see below about how to contact us, and how we may deal with your query.

Please note that all of the below relates to completed assessments. If you have questions about an ongoing assessment, please contact us via the messages section of the application portal.

UK ENIC is dedicated to providing an excellent service to our customers. If you have concerns about the level of service provided during your application, please contact us via the messages section of the application portal. Your message will be passed on to the manager of the service, who will reply within 5 working days.

If you are still dissatisfied with the information that has been provided following your complaint, your case will be passed on to a senior manager for further consideration and a written response will be provided.

Please note that the timeframe for submitting complaints is 6 months after the service has been provided. Any complaints submitted after that period cannot be considered.

If you have any questions about a comparability level on your statement, or would like further clarification on why we have assessed your qualification in a certain way, please email us at [email protected] In your email, please let us know your concerns, outline the reasons why you consider our assessment to be incorrect and attach any documents you have in support of this. Please also include your Enquiry ID number.

In our response, we will provide more information about the reasons behind an assessment or a more detailed explanation of the assessment process used by UK ENIC.

Some examples of requests for clarification are as follows:

  • Any potential errors made in ENIC assessments
  • An explanation of the comparison statement provided
  • An explanation of the format of our assessment
  • The source of information used when making an assessment.

Please address any requests for clarification to the Information Officer who completed your initial assessment. Your request will be answered by a member of the Individual Services Team and responses will be quality checked by a senior member of staff.

Please note that the time frame for submitting a request for clarification is 6 months after the service has been provided. Any requests submitted after this period cannot be considered.

If you are dissatisfied with the comparability level provided by your assessment, or with the information provided in your assessment statement, then you are entitled to request a reassessment of your qualification(s).

Please note that the time frame for submitting a reassessment request is 6 months after the service has been provided. Any requests submitted after this period cannot be considered.

In order to request a reassessment, please send an email to [email protected]. In your email, please let us know your concerns, outline the reasons why you consider our assessment to be incorrect and attach any documents that you have in support of this.

If the request for reassessment is for one or both of the reasons stated above (dissatisfaction with the comparability level provided, or with the information provided in your assessment statement), then a reassessment of your qualification(s) will be carried out by a member of the Information Services Team who will reconsider the information originally supplied and re-evaluate the initial assessment accordingly. All reassessment requests will be quality checked by a senior member of staff.

There are a number of different potential outcomes to this process:

  • Original Decision Upheld: The grounds upon which the request for reassessment has been raised are considered unfounded. You will be informed that the original guidance is considered accurate and additional reasons for this outcome are provided.
  • Further Detail Required: There is insufficient evidence in order to change our initial assessment. In this case, we may request new documentation from an authoritative source in the qualification’s country of origin.
  • Further Research Required: The line of argument suggests that the information held by UK ENIC is insufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. In this situation, more in-depth research is conducted by a senior evaluator in order to determine the merit of the argument.
  • Original Decision Reversed: The request for reassessment is upheld and a reassessment of the qualification(s) is provided. This reassessment should then be communicated clearly to the applicant, and will be used to verify data held by UK ENIC.

If you are still dissatisfied with the information that has been provided following a reassessment request, we will ask you to provide additional evidence. Then, if appropriate, the case will be passed on to a manager for further consideration. A written response will then be provided by a senior member of staff.

There are a number of different potential outcomes to this second re-examination:

  • Original Decision Upheld: The grounds upon which the request for reassessment has been raised are considered unfounded. The individual is therefore informed that the original guidance is considered accurate and reasons for this outcome are provided.
  • Further Detail Required: There is insufficient evidence in order to change our initial assessment. In this case, we may request new documentation from an authoritative source in the qualification’s country of origin.
  • Original Decision Reversed: The request for reassessment is upheld and a reassessment of the qualification(s) is provided. This reassessment should then be communicated clearly to the applicant, and will be used to verify data held by UK ENIC.

Appeals - Appeals Committee

If a case is still unresolved following the reassessment process described above, it may be referred to the Appeals Committee by the Review Group. The Review Group is made up of UK ENIC senior members of staff and meets quarterly, with a mandate to meet more frequently in extraordinary cases. The Appeals Committee, which includes UK ENIC staff and also external assessors, represents an external source of objective evaluation.

This committee serves the following functions:

  • To consider appeals received by UK ENIC and to advise on courses of action to ensure fair recognition
  • To analyse and validate information as a consequence of specific cases.

The Appeals Committee will examine each case referred to it and determine the appropriate course of action, based on their body of knowledge and professional experience. The potential decisions of the Committee fall into three categories:

  • Decision to amend assessment: the case for adjusting the level of the award relative to the UK education system is agreed upon unanimously
  • Decision to undertake further targeted research: the case remains uncertain, with a number of concerns raised. The ENIC team concerned is then provided with specific points to follow up and present at the following Committee Meeting
  • Decision to leave assessment unchanged: the case is not strong enough to merit changes to the existing evaluation.

Please note that the Appeals Committee will only consider cases that remain unresolved following a reassessment request. It is possible that a case will be referred back to the relevant member of staff to provide the required response before being considered further by the Appeals Committee if necessary.

Please note that the decision of the Appeals Committee is final and UK ENIC is unable to consider any further correspondence once this decision has been made.

As part of an assessment, our credential evaluators will review your documents and information provided in detail. If we have reason to suspect that documents are not genuine, we retain the right to suspend services as per our Terms and Conditions, which can be read here: https://www.ecctis.com/about-us/Terms

In order to appeal our decision, you must submit an appeal within 30 working days of the notification of account suspension. To do this, you must send the following to [email protected]:

Upon receipt of the above documentation, we will review your application and documents and, if required, your documents will be submitted for primary source verification in order to confirm the authenticity of the documents presented.

Please note that during the appeal process, Ecctis will retain all fees and account activity will be suspended until a verification outcome is received. Moreover, we are unable to guarantee a timeframe for the primary source verification process as our verification provider relies on receiving a response from the institution.

The right to appeal is granted at Ecctis’ discretion and will be withdrawn for instances in which evidence is identified of document and/or applicant manipulation and misrepresentation.

In order to submit an appeal, you must send an email to [email protected] containing your account reference number and the following documentation which, if required, gives us permission to conduct primary source verification on the documentation presented:

Please note that where your institution requests specific information or documents, we may contact you asking for this.

Once all documentation has been received, we will review your application and if necessary, pass your information to our third-party verification provider.

Please note that we are unable to confirm a timeframe for this process as our verification provider relies on receiving a response from the institution. If a positive verification is received, action will be taken to complete the service at the earliest possible opportunity.

For any further information regarding the clarification, reassessment, and appeals procedures set out above, please contact the Review Group:

t: +44 (0)330 912 0030.