NACES® Membership Criteria

In order for an applicant for membership (hereafter referred to as Applicant) to be admitted as  a member of the Corporation and to maintain membership, all of the following criteria must be met at all times:

Section 1. Criteria for the Applicant

An Applicant for membership in the Corporation must be an independent private non-membership organization that is not affiliated with any university, college, or membership organization, and whose activities include evaluating the educational credentials of foreign-educated individuals. As stated in Article II, section 5 B., applicants must be completely independent in determining and implementing evaluation policies.

Section 2. Criteria for the Applicant's Personnel

A. Senior Evaluation Staff

The Applicant's senior evaluator(s) must:

  1. Have had not less than five years of full-time experience (or the equivalent in part-time) substantive supervised experience in foreign student admissions or closely related foreign educational credential evaluation work covering all levels of education.  This experience must have been acquired as an employee of an academic institution in the United States that has regional academic accreditation, or as an employee of a member of this Corporation.  The experience must be recent and relevant to the services offered by the Applicant.

  2. Maintain significant appropriate contacts with professional associations in the professional fields for which the Applicant evaluates foreign educational credentials for purposes of certification, licensure, registration, employment, or professional membership.

  3. Keep up to date with changes in educational systems in other countries and share this information regularly through publications or through presentations at professional conferences or through public service programs that provide an open exchange of expertise and information to person involved in international education.

  4. Develop and maintain procedures for identifying foreign educational credential that are not authentic, and refuse to prepare an evaluation report based upon such credentials.

  5. Be responsible for determining the evaluation policies of the Applicant.

  6. Supervise junior evaluators and support staff and have ultimate responsibility for all evaluations.

B. Junior Evaluation Staff

Junior evaluators (those who do not yet meet the requirements for senior evaluators noted in Section 2, Subsection A, immediately above) must:

  1. Be provided with on-going in-house training, including training in research methods and procedures.

  2. Be provided with opportunities for professional growth development.

Section 3. References and Resources

A. The Applicant must have a reference library pertinent to the evaluation of foreign educational credentials that includes the standard references in the field as set forth in the NAFSA ADSEC Bibliography.

B. To supplement standard references, the Applicant's reference library must also include materials distributed by academic institutions, ministries of education, and bi-national and multi-national organizations, whether or not those materials appear in the NAFSA ADSEC Bibliography.

C. The reference library must be kept current.

D. The Applicant must have access to adequate and reliable translation services for all the educational credentials written in a language in which the Applicant's evaluation staff is not proficient.

Section 4. Records

The Applicant must maintain for at least three years detailed records of all evaluation reports prepared.

Section 5. Information Available to the Public

A. The Applicant must make available to the public, on request, the following information:

  1. The composition of its Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, or other governing group (if there is one).

  2. The officers and administrators.

  3. The members of the senior evaluation staff and their qualifications.

  4. A clear statement of the Applicant's evaluation policies.

  5. The scope of services offered by the Applicant, and the fees for such services.

  6. The Applicant's application procedures.

B. The Applicant's brochure shall not state or imply endorsement by any professional organization or group unless that organization or group has granted specific endorsement in writing.

Section 6. Evaluation Reports

A. Each of the Applicant's evaluation reports must consider and review all necessary and relevant documentation concerning an individual's educational history.  The document(s) evaluated and the purpose for the evaluation must be clearly stated in the evaluation report.

B. In preparing an evaluation report, the Applicant must make every effort to consult appropriate resources in order to provide the most accurate evaluation possible consistent with the purpose of the request.

C. Each evaluation report must include at least the following information:

  1. The name(s) and location(s) of the institution(s) attended.

  2. The indigenous name of the qualification received or the program followed (if it was not completed).

  3. The year the qualification was awarded, or the years of enrollment if a program was not completed.

  4. The major field studied.

  5. The Applicant's judgment concerning the U.S. equivalence of the qualifications received.

D. Evaluation reports based upon incomplete documentation or upon reconstructed documentation must clearly so state.

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