UAE to issue equivalency for Indian degrees

The Ministry of Education has agreed to issue equivalency for all Indian degrees that match the set criteria, the Indian embassy has announced.

To work in the UAE, many professionals have to obtain an equivalency certificate from the UAE Ministry of Education for their Indian educational and professional qualifications. Many such applications for equivalency from Indians had been rejected due to lack of clarity over internal or external marks in their mark lists. Most of them had sought the embassy’s help to resolve this issue.

Indian Ambassador Navdeep Singh Suri called on UAE Education Minister Hussain Bin Ibrahim last week to discuss problems faced by Indian nationals following rejection of equivalency of some Indian degrees due to lack of clarity over internal/external marks, according to a press release issued by the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

It stated that “The Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi is happy to inform the Indian community that following the above discussions, the Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates notified that it has no objection to equivalence those degrees that meet all other certificate equivalency criteria.

Following the ambassador’s discussions with the minister, the UAE Ministry of Education conveyed to the embassy that it has reviewed the information provided to it through the ‘Action Plan for Academic and Administrative Reforms’ issued by the India’s University Grant Commission (UGC).

The UAE ministry has come to know that the word “external” in the mark sheet reflects the method of evaluation and not place of study and notified that it has no objection to equivalence those degrees that meets all other certificate equivalency criteria, the release further said.

“Those applications that have been rejected previously, will be reviewed and equivalency letters would be issued after meeting all other certificate equivalency conditions,” it added.

The UAE Ministry of Education further informed that it is working on all such applications gradually and requested for cooperation from all concerned as it will take some time to review all these cases due to huge number of such applications, the press release said.

Indian community is the largest expatriate community in the UAE. Approximately 3.3 million non-resident Indians constitute about 30 per cent of the total population of the Gulf country.