Guidelines for online application for evaluation of Foreign Awards-TCU

Guidelines for online application for evaluation of Foreign Awards

1. Introduction

The Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) as a body corporate established under the Universities Act, No. 7 of 2005, is mandated to assess and hence to recognize awards given by higher education institutions outside Tanzania.

Evaluation of Award is the process of verifying that an award attesting to the knowledge, skills, competencies and education obtained in another country is comparable to the standards established for Tanzanian awards. A foreign award is an award which has been made by an awarding body outside of Tanzania.

1. Limitation

The TCU assessment process makes provisions for all awards that form part of the university level education and training systems of other countries. Clients are informed that assessment is not conducted to the awards specified below;

1.   Awards obtained from both public and private Tanzanian education and training institutions.
2.    Awards issued by education and training institutions which are not officially recognized as a part of a national education system or accredited according to the relevant provisions of a particularly country. These include awards managed by the professional bodies.
3. Short Courses, in-service training, workshop/seminars and experiential learning.
4. Prior learning acquired outside a national system of education and training.

1. Legal status of its recommendations

TCU has a mandate to evaluate foreign award as stipulated in article 5 (i) (n) of the Universities Act 2005 that ‘the functions of Commission shall be to standardize, recognize and equate degrees, diplomas and certificates conferred or awarded by foreign institutions and local institutions’.

The evaluation of award does not necessarily confirm the authenticity of award documents.

However steps are taken to verify authenticity when documents are obviously suspect, recipients of the letter/certificates of evaluation are advised to insist on the original award documents and/or  have the authenticity of these verified  by the awarding bodies. The addresses of awarding bodies are normally provided by TCU.

1. Other important notes

In general it takes a minimum of 14 working days to process an application for recognition of a foreign award. A longer duration may be required for various reasons including the availability on information from a third party.

Once evaluation of your award has been established, you will receive written advice on the   comparability of your award.

The advice issued is based on the current understanding of the comparability of awards.

Comparability of awards may have to be re-examined in the future on the basis of changes  and development in national and international education and training systems and our knowledge thereof.

Any appeal over the assessment results will gladly be accommodated if in writing or per personal appointment made in advance.

1. Lodging an application and payment of evaluation fee
2. a)A proper and complete application will include the following:

1. Fill in the online application form l located in TCU website www.tcu.go.tz
2. A complete set of documentation ( see section A of the online application form)
3. Payment or proof of payment of fee of Tshs 150,000 for a Postgraduate award and Tshs 100,000 for an undergraduate award. The payment should be made through CRDB Bank, A/C Name – Tanzania Commission for Universities(TCU), A/C No. 01J1026795701

1. b) Certified copies of award are acceptable. The right is reserved, however, to request original documents and /or have the authenticity of documents verified by the relevant authorities in the country of origin.
2. c)Certificate in foreign language must be accompanied by certified translations into English. Note that both the document in the original language and the translation are required.
3. d)Secondary school certificates must be issued and endorsed/homologated by official examining/ certification body in the country of original. Certificates issued by schools will not be accepted when the examination were conducted by external examining body.
4. e)For Evaluation of postgraduate awards applicants must issue their undergraduate certificates and transcripts.
5. f)TCU creates a database which contains information you have supplied. This record is used solely in dealing with your application and may be extracted for general statistics purposes or in fulfillment of other legal requirements.

N.B

Documents (b-e) must be uploaded within the respective section in the application form.

Proof of payment (receipt of payment) must be shown in the time of collecting the certificate of evaluation.

1. Issuing of certificate of assessment/evaluation

Applicants are required to bring the original certificates which were uploaded in the system and receipt of payment of evaluation fee for verification when issuing evaluation certificate.

Thanks for your understanding and welcome!