This page has been created to help you understand how to apply correctly. When you want to join a University course you must be sure you send useful material to be evaluated. All the paperwork, the documents, must be valid, understandable, and official.
When applying for a university course in Europe, it is almost certain that you will need one or more of the documents we show you in the following paragraphs. The situation is different if you graduated from the European Union or if you graduated abroad. Let’s understand how to handle it.
University degree
When it is necessary to provide your degree, consider that the University always means a degree certificate or, even better, a legalised translation of it. Remember, it’s always suggested to provide the higher qualification you own. If you own a Bachelor’s degree but also a Master’s degree (An Msc for example), better to show the MSc. As the legalized translation should not be enough to understand the level of your title, the next steps are almost always needed.
Diploma supplement
The diploma supplement is produced by higher education institutions. It is designed as an aid to support the recognition of academic qualifications and provides additional info about your diploma/degree.
Usually, if you graduated from European Union, a diploma supplement can be enough to evaluate your qualification, but often it should be accompanied by the transcript of records.
Read more about the diploma supplement on the EU website.
Transcript of records
A transcript is a certified record of a student throughout a course of study having full enrollment history including all courses attempted, grades earned and degrees and awards conferred. It usually clearly states the amount of ECTS earned. You need to provide it together with the diploma supplement.
Dichiarazione di valore
If you graduated outside the European Union, the Diploma Supplement could be not enough. Moreover, in some countries, it is not produced. Other times, the degree is too old and for some degrees older than twenty years it may not be possible to produce the Diploma Supplement with the transcript.
If you want to study in Italy and you graduated abroad, you could produce the dichiarazione di valore. This document can only be produced by the Italian Embassy or Consulate in the country where you obtained the degree.
CIMEA
The Statement of Comparability and the Verification of the Certification are accepted and preferred by many universities as an alternative to the Declaration of Value and/or the Diploma Supplement. They can be produced by CIMEA.
CIMEA is the official Italian centre within the NARIC – National Academic Recognition Information Centres – network of the European Union and the ENIC – European National Information Centres – network of the European Council and of UNESCO.
Take a look at the FAQ section below.
CIMEA supports academic mobility in all its forms and facilitates the understanding of the components of the Italian and foreign higher education and training systems and promotes the principles of the Lisbon Convention in the field of academic qualification recognition.
It is possible that the university organising the course may ask students – especially if they graduated outside the European Union – to produce a document called a Statement of Comparability. This is a certificate sometimes necessary to understand whether your degree is comparable to the one required for admission to the course. CIMEA issues it.
Take a look at the tutorial we found on YouTube.
Remember, the University of Siena stipulated an agreement with CIMEA under which CIMEA itself undertakes to produce the Statement of Comparability and the Verification of the Certification certificates with a quick timeframe and at discounted prices for candidates to the courses of study of this University. To take advantage, interested candidates can register free of charge on the CIMEA Diplome platform through the following link dedicated to the University of Siena: https://cimea.diplo-me.eu/unisi/#/auth/login