NACES Uses Google Search to Deny Credential Evaluation

NACES Uses Google Search to Deny Credential Evaluation

I just heard today that the various NACES http://naces.org members (specifically FIS, WES and ECE) use the search results from Google to deny those people they deem questionable for a foreign credential evaluation. Then I have heard, that they share information between themselves, even though the individual members are separate entities. I thought that it was the foreign university, whose degrees were being evaluated for US Equivalency, not the individual submitting the credentials. How subjective is that?

Although I will agree that if the documents are fraudulent, the individual should be refused an evaluation, and the documents confiscated. But for those people submitting legitimate foreign credentials, that can be verified, as long as the institution is recognized by the Ministry of Education, one person should not receive an evaluation and another individual turned down. The foreign credential evaluation system in the United States needs to be regulated. It seems to me that preference should not be given to one company over another. NACES seems to have a monopoly within the industry, and there either needs to be laws passed barring the use of one company over another, but, possibly there needs to be a legal test case to enforce fair trade within the industry. Hopefully, non-NACES members at some point will pursue a legal remedy to get a larger share of the pie. What do I know? Go figure....

Harley Peterson

 

It depends on how stringent the particular Ministry of Education is in accrediting schools. If a particular nation licenses anyone who wants to run an institution of higher education without mandating minimum qualifications or requirements for the school, then the state recognition is worthless.

 

Hi Harley - I think it's a little irresponsible to spread rumors about an organization such as this without providing any facts or citing any sources.

 

Especially when it is your first post and you recently registered. Highly suspect.

 

I am sorry Kizmet, but I don't have permission to reveal the name of the person involved. I saw the email refusing the evaluation. Other graduates recently received evaluations. The point I am making, is that NACES has a monopoly on the credential evaluation industry, and other than professional membership in NAFSA and AEA, no license is required to become an evaluator. Every company should be given equal opportunity to do evaluations for both government and education.

 

Not all US universities go though evaluators - I knew two foreign degree holders (one UK, one SA) whose 3-year degrees were evaluated by admission personnel at CSUDH (they had a guide that listed many foreign schools) before being admitted to the MSQA program.

 

I'm sorry too because without any evidence whatsoever your rumor seriously lacks credibility. As for the NACES "monopoly," here's one small piece of evidence that indicates that you're wrong. There are probably others.

http://www.csufresno.edu/issp/home/index.shtml

 

Kizmit,

Univ of California at Fresno is an exception. However, a majority of the universities and federal government agencies in the USA require NACES. Practically all DETC Accredited universities require NACES. What makes NACES evaluators so special? It doesn't make them any more experienced. Thank you.

 

Good for them. I've been arguing for years that Google and similar search engines are among the best tools available for learning about the credibility of questionable 'universities'.

Real higher education institutions have distinctive internet signatures. Professors claim the school as their institutional affiliation. They publish papers and make presentations with the school's name on them. Professional organizations, employers and government agencies refer to the school and to its programs. Schools receive grants and win awards. Other universities collaborate on academic projects and exchange faculty and students. Even neighbors will often mention living near a university and local businesses cater to its students and staff.

Degree-mills typically look dramatically different. They produce few if any hits of an academic, scholarly or professional nature. Instead, there's lots of promotional fluff on discussion boards and similar places. There may be boasts of fake accreditors or weird denunciations of accreditation. There may be strange emphasis on business licenses or apostiles. WHOIS is often helpful, since degree mill websites are often registered anonymously or with fake contact information. In many cases degree-mill websites lack even the most basic information, such as the university's actual physical address. When an address is provided, it often turns out to be a mail-forwarding service.

While I don't believe that Google should be relied on exclusively, it's a tremendous source of information. Of course people using it on questioned schools will have to display some intelligence and critical thinking so as to separate what's significant in the results from what's not.

 

Dear Bill,

I wasn't referring to the university. If you carefully read my original post, I stated that two graduates, same degree, different outcomes, all because NACES decided to refuse to give an evaluation to someone with a questionable background. The university is Ministry of Education recognized and is on the UNESCO International List of Approved Universities. In other words, they based the evaluation on the graduate, not the university. I thought that the who purpose of the credential evaluation is to determine if the degree earned is equivalent to a US Regionally Accredited degree, not whether the student had any past educational issues. Thank you.

 

Yes, it's an exception. But how many other exceptions are out there? Probably a bunch. It just shows that you're wrong about the whole "monopoly" thing. As for your other point, if the majority of schools and federal agencies utilize NACES evaluations I'm guessing that there's a good reason. It's probably about having clear standards, consistency and reliability. I'm guessing that's what makes them so special. You've shown nothing to contradict that except a half-baked rumor with no supporting evidence. As far as I'm concerned, this is a dead issue. If you want to beat on it some more I guess that's OK but to me it seems just a little too troll-like for my taste.

 

I seen this happen, but more info needed for your specific case.

Some NACES member evaluation services require that persons holding credentials from specific countries also hold valid matriculation or High school graduation credentials.
There should be progression from Bachelors to Masters degree etc.

I know case when person had valid Masters degree from recognized university in Russia but NACES member service refused to evaluate because the person couldn't produce High School diploma and Bachelors degree.

All he had is diploma and transcripts for Masters degree.
This was not acceptable so the service refused to evaluate the degree.

 

What kind of "questionable background"?

Assuming that there's any truth to your story, allegedly some unknown foreign credential evaluators believed that some unknown facts about an unknown individual's background were serious and relevant enough to justify their not performing an evaluation for him.

For all we know, that might have been a very wise and prudent decision.

Like the universities and employers who use their services, I have a great deal of respect for the credential evaluators. So I'm simply going to assume a-priori that their decisions are reasonable and justified unless I'm provided with convincing reason to think otherwise.

I'm certainly not going to swallow your bait and join you in condemning evil collusion and conspiracies that are supposedly being orchestrated by the professional organization NACES.

 

So 3 of 20 NACES members refused to evaluate a particular persons foreign degree. And used Google to make that decison, hmm. What of the other
17 members of the numerous colleges and universities that do their own evaluation?

This could be for a number of reasons, not related to the foreign scholl, but to the person involved. Many businesses reserve the right to refuse service.

 

It maybe true that the credentials evaluation industry in the United States needs some regulation. However, there are many evaluators of high integrity currently available in the market.

I work with an organization called AICE (AICE) which is an alternative to NACES. AICE has 7 member evaluation services, and is the only other organization besides NACES recommended by the US Department of Education.

I also work with a NACES member company called IACE in Denton, Texas, and I can definitely recommend them as an honest and competent evaluation service.

This industry is definitely more confusing than it needs to be, and there is a significant lack of information available to the public about what options people have when getting their foreign credentials evaluated. In my opinion, the biggest problem is that the lack of awareness extends into the ranks of large institutions, which may decide to accept evaluations only from the largest evaluations services. And of course, the largest evaluation services are not necessarily the best.