Terms of Service

Custom Applications

Please note we have custom applications for applicants to the University of Dallas, City University of New York (CUNY), the New York University School of Professional Studies (NYU SPS), Houston Community College (HCC), Baylor College of Medicine, and USAID. Those institutions may have unique requirements that differ from Transcript Research's standard requirements stated elsewhere. Be sure to carefully read the application contract to ensure you are able to meet the requirements and know what to expect before applying. These custom applications are unable to use our policies for Provisional Assessment because of the institution's own policies.

Official Documents/Copies 

EFFECTIVE FEBRUARY 1, 2023:

Transcript Research now offers two types of Reports based on your needs and educational documents:

Official Evaluation: This report is our standard, official evaluation and is widely accepted. To conduct an Official Evaluation, we require the official academic records or verification. Depending on the country and level of study, "official" might mean documents sent in a sealed envelope directly from the institution (for some countries, we are unable to accept originals from the applicant), attested copies provided by the applicant, digital records directly from the institution, or anything in between. We have more detailed information about our official documents policy linked below under Document Requirements by Country. The Official Evaluation will be sent to you electronically, but you may also add print copies. The Official Evaluation is valid for 5 years from the date of issue. Many universities and immigration offices in particular require an Official Evaluation based on official documents, but please check with the specific requirements of the institution who will be receiving your report. Refunds are only issued in the case of over-payment so be sure to check our country-requirements to ensure you can meet them before you apply. We do not refund Rush payments if we do not receive the required documents in the scheduled time-frame.

Provisional Assessment: The Provisional Assessment is conducted on the basis of your unofficial copies or scans of the official, formal academic records. This includes scans, copies, notarized documents, student copies, and other documents that we would not normally accept for an Official Evaluation. We still cannot accept printouts/screen shots of student records systems or preliminary results from external examinations since those do not represent final documents. Please check with the intended recipient (admissions officer, employer, immigration attorney, recruiter, etc.) before applying to ensure that they are willing to accept a Provisional Assessment on the basis of unofficial documents. If you choose to order additional copies after the expiration date, you will need to re-apply for a new Provisional Assessment or provide your official documents and upgrade to an Official Evaluation. The Provisional Assessment will be sent to you electronically. The Provisional Assessment is valid for 1 year from the date of issue. Please note that many universities and immigration offices in particular are unable to accept a Provisional Assessment based on unofficial scans, so please be sure to check with them before applying. Refunds are only issued in the case of over-payment. We do not refund Rush payments if we do not receive the required documents in the scheduled time-frame. Ultimately, it is each institution's decision as to whether they will require us to evaluate official documents or not, so you will need to ask the institution who will be receiving the report if they will accept our country-requirements for the Provisional Assessment.

Document Policies for the Official Evaluation: Transcript Research will not finalize an Official Evaluation on the basis of photocopies, scans, or notarized documents unless they can be verified directly by the issuing institution, examination board, ministry of education, or other relevant agency. Notarized documents are not official; we also do not accept the Apostille as official. Please see our country-specific requirements at http://transcriptresearch.com/requirements/ If you are interested in ordering a Provisional Assessment of unofficial documents, please skip to that section below.

Please note that we are unable to make exceptions to this requirement for official documents for an Official Evaluation on the basis of immigration or citizenship status or for asylees or refugees. 

General Policies

Transcript Research is not responsible for requesting transcripts/academic credentials for evaluation. It is the applicant's responsibility to make arrangements to have them sent to us, according to our country-specific requirements.

If you communicate with us or send documents to us via more than one email address before or after you apply, it is your responsibility to let us know to connect all email addresses with your account. Otherwise, we will assume that the email address used on your application for evaluation is the email address associated with your account.

Documents may also be sent electronically by fax or email from the institution that issued the credential. For electronic records, we must be able to confirm that the sender is the appropriate authority at the institution that issues educational records. If we are unable to verify that the email address or fax sending us the documents is the person or office authorized to issue the records (controller of exams, registrar, records office, etc), then we will not be able to accept the electronic records and will require alternative official documents as specified above. 

For secondary/high school transcripts, the secondary/high school can send us the records directly as long as we can confirm the contact information is validated. For countries that have a state or national leaving examination, we can only accept the leaving examination or matriculation certificate from the examination body, not from the secondary school. Please be aware that we do not assess Predicted Grades as if they were final grades. For university credentials, educational records cannot be sent by the academic department or faculty; they must be sent by the records, registrar's, controller of exams, or other centralized department that issues official records for that institution. 

We are unable to evaluate incomplete or in-progress postgraduate research programs unless they are issued on standard educational transcript records from the higher education institution. We cannot conduct evaluations based on a list of seminars, letters from advisors, or lists of training hours, projects, medical specializations, internships, research work, clinical work, examinations, practicals, papers, or other non-standard documentation. We are happy to evaluate standard academic records/transcripts that show coursework or continuing enrollment for incomplete or in-progress work as long as they are on standardized transcripts from the institution. If the institution does not issue standardized academic records for incomplete or in-progress postgraduate research programs, then we would not be able to evaluate the credential until it is completed and the diploma awarded.

Please note that we do not accept third-party reporting of subjects, grades, or credits from one institution to another. That means that if you have transferred from one institution to another, you must submit official transcripts from all institutions if you want them included in your evaluation report. We cannot accept a different institution's list of your coursework from another school as official. In addition, we do not evaluate homeschool, work experience, on-the-job training, resumes, or references. We only evaluate educational or training qualifications.

Official documents sent to us by the applicant will be returned as long as shipping is paid. If shipping is not paid for the return of your documents after one year, the documents will be destroyed. Documents sent to us directly by the issuing institution become our property and will not be returned or released to the student/applicant.

Please note that if you (or your institution) fail to list our complete, accurate address on your package, it is not our responsibility if we do not receive the package. Our correct address is: 

Transcript Research, 9540 Garland Road Suite 381, Box 383, Dallas, TX 75218

All parts of our address are required in order for your package to be delivered to us. 

Special note on oversized documents: If you have oversized degrees - documents as big as A3 paper (297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5 inches) or bigger, please contact us by email before mailing your documents. We charge additional shipping for oversized documents, which is based on the size of your documents and your mailing address, but alternative arrangements may be available so you will need to email us before mailing them.

Transcript Research does not evaluate transcripts/degrees from US institutions, but if you have studied at higher education institutions in the US, you can include scans of those records, and we will include general information about those studies in the evaluation.

Document Policies for the Provisional Assessment: As of February 1, 2023, Transcript Research has begun offering a new service: a Provisional Assessment. The Provisional Assessment allows us to conduct a temporary evaluation on the basis of your scans, copies, faxes, or student copies. The Provisional Assessment is based on unofficial documents. Please do not mail any documents to us. You can upload scanned copies of your transcripts, degrees, diplomas so we can conduct your evaluation. Don't forget to include degrees or diplomas you may have earned. If your documents are in a language other than English, we still require scans of both the native language and English translations separately with our standard translation policies.

The Provisional Assessment enables us to conduct an in-depth review on the basis of documents we would ordinarily be unable to accept for a formal evaluation: scans, faxes, photocopies, student copies, or original documents provided by the applicant from some countries. The Provisional Assessment is valid for one year and may be converted to a formal transcript evaluation by providing the official documents as required and completing the upgrade application process. Please note that we may request clearer or additional scans if the scans submitted are insufficient for our needs.

If you previously applied under our old application for evaluation OR would like to switch your existing Official Evaluation application to a Provisional Assessment, please contact us so we can help you make this change.

You can read about our general evaluation policies here.

Secondary School/High School Transcripts

If you are applying with an incomplete high school/secondary school transcript in order to transfer to a US high school, please check with the US school first to see if they will accept an evaluation that does not have credits or Carnegie units. Transcript Research dose not include Carnegie units or credits for high school/secondary school credentials on our evaluation reports. We offer a course-by-course evaluation of high school/secondary education records, but it will not include credits or Carnegie units, only subjects and grades.

In addition, if you are enrolled in a high school/secondary school program that does not align with your country's education system (such as completing British-based secondary examinations in another country), please let us know on the application form to ensure there are no delays on your evaluation.

Transcript Research does not add additional weighting to Advanced, Advanced Placement, or Honours high school courses since those designations are not treated consistently at US colleges and universities. We do include designations identifying these courses, but we treat their grades at face value to make it easier for the recipient institutions to apply their own policies to these subjects and their earned grades. US colleges and universities typically do not accept AP results from high school transcripts, generally requiring the results to be sent directly from the College Board since AP scores are not determined by school-awarded transcript grades. Transcript Research does not evaluate external AP examinations since their acceptance is determined on an individualized basis by each US college or university according to their own domestic admissions policies.

Secondary Leaving Examinations

If you are currently enrolled in secondary/high school education in an educational system that leads to a national/state-wide leaving examination, please contact us before applying so that we may determine if your records can be evaluated at this time. From many such systems, we are unable to complete a final evaluation until the leaving examination has been taken and results have been awarded.  

English Proficiency Tests

Transcript Research does not evaluate English Proficiency Tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, Pearson Test of English, or Duolingo English Test among others. These are not academic transcripts from a higher education institution, and we do not evaluate them. If the institution where you are applying requires them or any other test, such as GRE, GMAT, SAT, AP exams, etc, you are responsible for ensuring your results are officially provided to the institutions where are you applying. Even if you submit the test results to us, we are not responsible for them since the institutions will not accept them from us as we are not the test provider. US higher education institutions require test results submitted directly from the test provider, and only you can release your test results to them. Transcript Research cannot and will not be responsible for providing your test results to a third party since we are not authorized by either the test organization or the receiving organization.

Verification

We reserve the right to verify all documents for either an Official Evaluation or a Provisional Assessment. Some Official Evaluations cannot be completed without verification, such as academic records from China, secondary results from Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and others. Please see our country-specific requirements at https://transcriptresearch.com/country_requirements.pdf

All documents are subject to verification, and documents from many countries are verified automatically. Transcript Research attempts to verify all documents submitted for evaluation. If our verification finds that the documents submitted were not valid, we will cancel the application (no refund) and notify the institutions listed on the application. We will also provide this information to the relevant authorities, and we will keep all documents submitted for evaluation, even if only some of them were confirmed fraudulent. 

Authenticity Statement

Transcript Research takes authenticity of documents very seriously. If we believe that the credentials submitted for evaluation or assessment have been altered or are otherwise in-authentic, we reserve the right to seek verification of any academic credentials (transcripts, diplomas, certificates, diploma supplements, etc.) at the secondary or higher level. If our verification finds that the documents submitted were not valid, we will cancel the application for evaluation (no refund) and notify the institutions or persons listed on the application of the results of our investigation. Any institution or person to whom you provide our evaluation report or order copies to be sent to is authorized to contact us to verify the report and any updated status regarding the authenticity of your documents. We will also provide this information to the local authorities. If any of your documents are confirmed to be inauthentic, we will cancel your evaluation without any return of fees or documents. In addition, we will not be able to issue an evaluation report or additional copies of previous reports if any of your documents are confirmed to be inauthentic.

Translations

Academic documents issued in a language other than English must be accompanied by a typed English translation, done either by the educational institution or a government-approved translator, or, if translated in the U.S., by a member of the American Translator's Association. For country-specifics regarding translations, please see www.transcriptresearch.com/requirements 

Translations are the applicant's responsibility.

We do not accept evaluations from other companies as a translation; we require a literal, word-for-word translation of the entire academic record being evaluated. We also do not accept machine translations from Google or other multilingual neural machine translation service websites or applications.

Transcript Research has a collaborative relationship with Credential Consultants, a corporate member of the American Translator's Association. Details about the process can be found here, and you can apply for a translation at https://cc.credentialconnection.com/Default.aspx?subdomain=tr

Applications We Cannot Accept

There are some evaluation types we are presently unable to evaluate. If you send the following types of educational records, they will be returned to you, and you will be charged for return shipping and a cancellation fee.

* We no longer conduct evaluations for the following types of programs: nursing, law, medicine, medical technology, physical therapy, or allied health programs. We may make exceptions for programs offered by degree-granting institutions recognized by the academic accrediting authorities in the country of study.

* We no longer conduct evaluations specifically for teacher certification boards or accounting boards. Many boards will still accept our course-by-course evaluations. 

* We no longer conduct any evaluations for offshore medical programs (Caribbean and others) unless the program was recognized by CAAM-HP during the time of your enrollment or within five years of graduation. If you submit an application for an offshore medical program that does not have CAAM-HP accreditation, it will be canceled and partially refunded minus a cancellation fee.

* We no longer conduct course-by-course evaluations with credits of religious education, vocational/technical studies, art or music academies, or language immersion programs unless conducted at a university or other educational institution recognized by the Ministry of Education or equivalent government educational authority. Typically, these studies are only available for general equivalency evaluations.

* We do not evaluate micro-credentials unless they are awarded by higher education institutions recognized by the higher education authorities in the country where located (or headquartered for online-only programs) AND if they lead to further higher education/transfer to degree programs. Many microcredentials are purely for employment purposes or professional training, and we are unable to evaluate those, but others may be "stackable" and provide an alternate pathway to completing post-secondary or degree-level qualifications.

* Transcript Research evaluates educational credentials and their supporting records, not employment or job training. We also do not evaluate work experience and can only offer limited evaluation of vocational training for employment purposes. Transcript Research requires formal educational records such transcripts, diplomas, certificates, qualifications, and other formal education document issued by the educational institution or registered training provider for academic or limited vocational training programs. We do not evaluate work experience, employment assessments, occupational training, military service, on-the-job training, resumes, expert opinion evaluations, or personal or professional reference letters, or other third party documentation.

* We do not evaluate Massive Open Online Course/MOOC courses, even when offered by or in conjunction with degree-granting institutions.

* We do not evaluate educational credentials from US high schools, colleges, or universities. If you apply for an international transcript evaluation and only have US educational records, you will be charged a cancellation fee. If you have both US and international records, we will evaluate your international records but may  also request an unofficial scan of your US records.

* Transcript Research reserves the right to decline to conduct an evaluation.

Transcript Research does not offer catalog matching or course matching for your studies at an educational institution in another country to the US institution where you may be applying. Whenever possible, we may include a link to the catalog or syllabus for post-secondary studies relevant to your enrollment to aid US institutions, but we do not match that coursework to US schools. In addition, we do not evaluate degree plans, study plans, catalogs, syllabi, etc. Our evaluation is conducted on the basis of the academic records (transcripts) issued with your coursework and grades. As such, any course-by-course evaluation will list the names of subjects as they appear on the academic transcripts (or official English translations). If the recipient of the evaluation report needs to know the content of the coursework, please provide a syllabus or course description (from the time period you were enrolled) for the course directly to them.

If you have doubts about whether or not we can evaluate your documents, you may email us a scanned copy to ask. However, we will only determine whether or not we can evaluate them as legitimate educational institutions. We do not determine in advance anything about the equivalency, credit recommendations, or whether it is compared to a US regionally accredited education institution since those are the primary purposes of the evaluation.

Evaluation Reports

The evaluation report will reflect the full name and date of birth as it appears on the application for evaluation unless documentation is provided to change that. We include this information on each page of the evaluation report. If your intended recipient needs to have your date of birth masked (hidden), you need to communicate that to us in writing before the evaluation report is completed.

For anyone who has earned at least two years of university-level study, the course-by-course list of subjects and grades will not include secondary/high school education unless specifically requested. For those course-by-course evaluations that do include secondary/high school studies, we begin with grade nine. We also offer a course-by-course of high school/secondary education records, but it will not include credits or Carnegie Units, only subjects and grades. If you are applying for a course-by-course evaluation of incomplete high school transcripts to transfer to a US high school, please check with them before applying for our evaluation to ensure they will accept our report without high school credits or Carnegie units as we do evaluate high school units.

If you have more than 3 post-secondary transcripts or credentials to be evaluated, please be aware that your evaluation may take longer to complete. Alternately, you may contact us about paying a surcharge to have more than 3 post-secondary credentials evaluated more quickly. No additional steps are needed for secondary level credentials.

Your evaluation report will include all credentials that have been provided for evaluation or assessment on a single report. Sometimes, however, people may find that they need different reports for different needs. For example, they may need a general equivalency evaluation for their secondary/high school studies for employment but a detailed, course-by-course evaluation of their university-level education. In other situations, people may want to separate their Bachelor and Master studies. If you need separate evaluation reports for different levels of study, you will need to submit two applications. Please contact us at info@transcriptresearch.com before applying so we can assist you with the process to ensure it goes smoothly. By default, all official documents at all levels of study (secondary/high school, undergraduate, and post-graduate studies) will be included on a single evaluation report to provide a complete view of your educational background.

Official Evaluation reports are issued electronically by default. For those applicants who also need a print copy for themselves or a third party, Official Evaluations are printed on security paper in a sealed, stamped envelope and sent to the applicant's mailing address unless third party shipping is purchased or an institution-specific application is used. Provisional Assessments are issued electronically only. Please note that we cannot combine Official Evaluation and Provisional Assessment for different documents; please choose which option fits your needs best.

In addition, our evaluations are conducted in English for a US audience. We are unable to conduct evaluations for use in other countries or other languages. In addition, we do not include accents, diacritical marks, or other accented characters in our evaluation reports since those characters are not used in the English language, even when listing foreign terminology such as names of institutions, degree names, or names of major fields of study.

When you receive your evaluation or assessment, please review it carefully. You have 90 days from the date the evaluation report is issued to raise any questions or concerns about the evaluation report. After that date, no changes will be made to that report; you would have to pay a reinstatement-adjustment fee for us to review your evaluation. If you do not like the translations you provided and want us to make changes to subject titles or other information based on new/different translations, you will be responsible for purchasing both a new translation and purchasing revisions to the report. 

If you would like to have us re-asses the outcome of your evaluation, within that 90 days, please submit your request in writing (mail or email) so that we can look at the particulars of your request, along with any supporting documents or information that you think will affect the outcome. Within 10 business days, you should receive a final written outcome if we are making changes or not. Please note that there is already extensive research that goes into each of our reports, so unless it is a typographical error, or something unique that your supporting documents reflect, there is no guarantee that changes will be made.

All prices are subject to change.

Grading Scale/Marking Schemes and Degree Plan/Study Plan/Program Syllabus

Please provide a copy of the grading scale/marking scheme used if it is not posted on your transcripts/academic records. If you did not graduate from the program, or your program is more than 20 years old, please provide a copy of the degree plan/study plan/program syllabus, or expect delays. 

Please note that online grading scale calculators that convert based on your final grading scale average generally do not align with a weighted grade average based on individual subjects and grades. You can read more about our grade conversion practices on our Evaluation Policies page.

Failed and Repeated Grades and Courses Excluded from the Institutional Average

When conducting an evaluation that includes a US grade point average, Transcript Research evaluates all courses that appear on the official transcripts. This is especially relevant for post-secondary credit conversions but may also affected secondary school records.

We cannot exclude courses, including failed courses, if they are listed on the transcript. If courses are failed and repeated or passed and repeated for a different grade, Transcript Research will use the best attempt, but the other attempts will still be identified on a course-by-course evaluation.

If a course is failed and not successfully repeated but is reported on the official transcript, it will be included in the US grade point average and attempted credits and listed on a course-by-course evaluation (if that option is chosen). We do not pick and choose only the courses that show the applicant to the best advantage; we evaluate the full academic record as reported on the transcript.

Sometimes post-secondary institutions will designate some courses as non-degree courses, additional courses outside the degree plan, or courses excluded from the institutional average for whatever reason. In other instances, international higher education institutions may determine their grade average or degree classification based only on courses in the major or only on courses taken in the final year. Transcript Research uses all coursework from the transcript in our assessments.

If courses are credit-bearing, university-level courses (not developmental, remedial, or otherwise not at the higher education level), they will be included in our evaluation report regardless of whether or not the international institution includes those courses in their overall average or degree classification. Non-credit, developmental, remedial, readiness courses, refresher courses, and other pre-degree coursework as well as extension courses, pre-degree intensive language immersion, and service experiences will not affect the grade average, assuming that information is clearly identified on the post-secondary transcript. All coursework that is offered at the level of higher education studies will be included in our evaluation report and any grade point average calculations.

In the US, grade point averages are typically calculated on the basis of all credit-bearing courses taken, including electives, extra courses, courses taken outside of their degree plan, non-degree courses. All higher education courses are counted regardless of whether or not they count towards graduation requirements. If some courses are identified on the transcript to show that they were not included in the institutional grade average or institutional total credits or hours, we will conduct two separate grade point averages to more fairly reflect these two distinct methodologies.

Incomplete Applications

Your application cannot be evaluated until all fees are paid and all documents and acceptable English translations are received. Standard evaluation processing time takes approximately 3 weeks from the time we receive all fees, documentation, and necessary information. Please note that older academic credentials (more than 20 years old) may require additional research time, and we strongly encourage you to provide a copy of the degree plan, course outline, grading scale, or other information about the curriculum, or expect additional delays.

As a reminder, if you choose an Official Evaluation, we can begin the process on the basis of a fax or scan of your academic records, but we cannot finalize and send the completed evaluation report until we receive your official academic credentials. If you choose a Provisional Assessment, you do not need to mail us anything, and nothing will be mailed to you.

3-year Degrees 

Transcript Research has revised our policy on 3-year Bachelor degrees. As of Fall 2022, we generally consider 3-year Bachelor degrees from recognized, degree-granting higher education institutions to be comparable to a 3-year Bachelor degree. However, we do not formally determine equivalencies without conducting an evaluation based on official academic records. Please note that some immigration attorneys may not agree with our interpretations of 3-year Bachelor degrees. If your goal is immigration purposes, we would recommend you consult an attorney before applying for evaluation. Our evaluations and assessments are recommendations based on our independent research and analysis, but they are not binding and may conflict with others' policies.

Cancellations and Fees

Applications can be canceled with 5 business days for a 50% refund. Otherwise, refunds will not be issued except in cases of over-payment. We will not issue a refund if you are unable or unwilling to meet the requirements of the application or change your mind, so it is imperative that you read and understand the country-specific requirements before you submit your application. In particular, you must submit official documents before an Official Evaluation can be issued, but that is not necessary for a Provisional Assessment. A refund will not be issued if you fail to provide official documents for an Official Evaluation. We do not refund Rush payments if we do not receive the required documents in the scheduled time-frame.

Transcript Research in unable to guarantee that a particular school, higher education institution, employer, or other organization will accept our evaluations since admissions and hiring are at the discretion of each individual institution. Please ensure that you check with the intended recipient of your evaluation before you apply. We do not maintain a list of the thousands of organizations that accept our evaluations. However, if your institution does not currently accept our evaluations, we are happy to send them information about Transcript Research and why were qualified to conduct international evaluations.
 
Fees are subject to change without notice. Applications are valid for 6 months. After that time, a reinstatement fee is required, and you may need to resend your documents. We do not typically maintain records for incomplete applications after 12 months. As of January 2022, completed evaluations (and electronic copies of the evaluated credentials) will be kept on file for five years, and additional official copies can be ordered for a fee. Evaluations will expire after five years, and new copies cannot be ordered after that point.

If any of your educational records are confirmed to be inauthentic or fraudulent, we will be unable to complete your application. We will continue to follow our policies stated above in our Authenticity Statement. We will not complete an evaluation for any of your academic credentials or reissue old reports if any of your other documents are confirmed to be inauthentic. Further, if official, verified documents are provided at a later date, for the same credentials or others, we will still not conduct a future evaluation or reissue old reports if you have ever submitted any verifiably false documents in the past. In addition, any institution or person to whom you provide our evaluation report is authorized to contact us to verify the report and any updated status regarding the authenticity of your documents.

If your application fee payment is reported as stolen, fraudulent, or unauthorized, we will contact you in case you simply did not recognize the name Transcript Research on your bank or credit card statement. Otherwise, your application will be cancelled, and any documents sent to us will become our property. Our policy is to not do business again with someone who uses credit or bank information that is reported as stolen, even if it was an error that they did not resolve. As a result, if you try to apply again, your application will be cancelled in full, as we are unable to complete an evaluation for anyone who has previously used bank or credit card information that was reported as stolen. We will also report your information to the institution where you applied to alert them of any possible suspicious behavior.

Sending Reports

Evaluation reports are sent at the end of the business day they are completed. Electronic copies, the default for all of our evaluation types, will be sent by email, and print copies of Official Evaluations will be sent by UPS.

Transcript Research only mails items with tracking, whether we are returning your  documents to you or sending an Official Evaluation report directly to you or a third party. Transcript Research uses the United Parcel Service (UPS) for our shipping needs. For US/domestic addresses, you have the option of UPS Ground (usually 3-4 business days) or UPS Next Day Air Saver (usually 1-2 days) shipping. For international addresses, we only offer UPS Worldwide Saver. The only exception is for mail to APO or FPO addresses or US territories; if your address fits those criteria, please contact us so we can discuss your unique shipping arrangements.

Note: UPS Next Day Air Saver shipping only means your package will be sent by a faster delivery method. It will not expedite the process of completing your evaluation work. If you need your evaluation completed faster than our standard turnaround time of approximately 3 weeks, then you should choose a rush service option.

Transcript Research does not make any guarantees about when print evaluation reports will be delivered. If you choose a rush service option, then we will complete and send your evaluation report by the due date if your documents have been received by that time. If you chose a print copy, we will send you tracking information (assuming all requirements have been met in that time period), but once it is picked up by UPS, we have no control over the UPS time frame. Shipping time is outside of our control, so if you need your evaluation report to arrive before a specific date, ensure that you apply early or provide information so we can also send the evaluation report by email or fax. Transcript Research will send you the tracking information when your package has been given to UPS, but we cannot make them process it faster.

We do not use other courier services/mail processors (FedEx, DHL, LoneStar Overnight, etc.) except for APO or FPO addresses or to US territories. We also will not send documents to you using a self-addressed stamped envelope; the envelope will be returned to you unused. We do not mail anything using stamped mail, and we do not use prepaid envelopes provided by the applicant or a third party.

If photocopies are mailed to us for a Provisional Review, they will not be returned.

We are not responsible for packages that do not arrive if you provide an incorrect address. If the UPS shipping service identifies an error in the address you provide, we will contact you.

If you mail your official documents to us, they will be returned to you when the evaluation is complete if you have paid for shipping. If your official documents are sent to us directly by the educational institution, examination body, professional association, Ministry of Education, or any other educational authority, those documents have been issued to us and will not be released to you. Please remember that if you choose a Provisional Assessment, do not mail anything to us, and we will not mail anything to you.

When your evaluation is completed, we will return any official documents that you have mailed to us (unless they are confirmed fraudulent) if you have paid for shipping. We will send you an email at the end of the day with the digital evaluation report and tracking information from UPS. Once your label is printed, we are no longer in possession of your documents. On rare occasions, packages do get mis-delivered. Please direct all tracking issues and questions to UPS. If you do not receive your package within 2 weeks, please contact UPS immediately with the tracking number so they can research the issue and locate your package.

If we mail a package that UPS tracking says has been delivered to the address you provided, or if it is returned due to insufficient or wrong address, you will be charged if it needs to be re-sent after two weeks.

Please note that our shipping fees are based on averages, and if your shipping fee is significantly higher than the average, we will contact you to discuss other arrangements or alternate addresses.

Recognized Institutions

Transcript Research is a private evaluation company in the United States that makes its determinations about what institutions and programs are considered comparable to regional accreditation in the United States based on the higher education recognition practices in the country of education.

There are two elements to recognition: institutional and programmatic recognition. Generally speaking, we look first at the country of study to determine who the educational authorities are for that country. This may be known by many names including Ministry of (Higher) Education, University Grants Commission, or Secretary of Education, among others. For public universities, this is often easier to determine. Private and/or non-university higher education institutions may have additional recognition steps in the country. In some countries, the Ministry of Higher Education of the country may register private higher education institutions as an education businesses, often called reconna par l'Etat, a process that generally requires filling out some paperwork and paying a fee, but this is not the same as the years-long, rigorous academic accreditation process which involves a self-study, peer review, site visit, detailed examination of the curriculum and instruction, and external quality assurance of a recognized or accredited higher education institution. These registered educational businesses are generally not eligible for further education or transfer in public universities in the country of study and generally do not meet requirements for government employment. Countries that have a mix of recognized, degree-granting institutions and registered educational business include Cameroon, Turks and Caicos, Sri Lanka, Guyana, Saint Kitts & Nevis, the United States, Antigua and Barbuda, Georgia, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Saint Lucia, Singapore, Zambia, and others. For these countries and others who have a mix of "registered" and recognized/accredited institutions, it can be very confusing so Transcript Research generally refers to the educational laws of that country and the differences designated by the higher education authorities in the country.

After identifying institutional recognition, we determine if the country also requires programmatic accreditation, or as it may be known in various countries, strictu sensu status, Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios, ministerial seal, diplome vise, etc. Programmatic accreditation means that the institution itself must be recognized by the educational authorities, and the program itself must also have approval by the educational authorities. It is very common for recognized institutions to offer a mix of programs that have academic accreditation and other programs that are not accredited, are in the accreditation review process, or were designed purely for employment purposes, which may be called certificat d'ecole or Titulos Propios. Programmatic accreditation is an important element of our accreditation review in countries as varied as France, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, Brazil, the Philippines, Georgia, Jamaica, Cote d'Ivoire, Ukraine, Mali, the United Arab Emirates, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, and many other countries around the world. Africa, Latin America, and Europe in particular typically require programmatic accreditation in addition to recognition of the institution before Transcript Research considers them comparable to a regionally accredited program in the United States.

In addition to this, there are some types of institutions that are recognized by a coalition of government-approved education authorities. Those include regional accrediting authorities such as the Conseil Africain et Malgache pour l'Enseignement Superieur/CAMES (African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education) which oversees private higher education in much of French-speaking Africa and elsewhere since many Francophone African countries are still working on their mechanisms for accrediting or recognizing private higher education institutions and programs. This category also includes the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP). Transcript Research has done the research to confirm that these institutions have been established by or with the formal consent of the educational authorities in their respective regions. Transcript Research rarely considers "intergovernmental institutions" or institutions established under international law to be comparable to regionally accredited institutions unless they are approved by the higher education authorities of the respective countries where they are located. Transcript Research also does not consider an articulation agreement, partnership, cooperative, or Memorandum of Understanding between an unrecognized and a recognized institution to transfer recognition to the unrecognized institution.

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, is not an accrediting body. UNESCO does offer useful educational resources that Transcript Research uses and regularly recommends, including the World Data on Education; the International Bureau of Education and its Country Dossiers; and the World Higher Education Database. These are all excellent tools for researching education systems and educational authorities, though we do not consider them definitive sources for recognition/accreditation information.

UNESCO's own statement on its ability to accredit educational institutions: "UNESCO is an intergovernmental body. It does not have the mandate to accredit or recognise higher education institutions, programmes, diplomas or accrediting agencies. Any provider of higher education or accrediting agency which claims or gives the impression that it is accredited and/or recognized by UNESCO should be treated with caution." In addition, United Nations treaties and resolutions do not confer academic accreditation. Membership in associations such as the Association of African Universities, Association of Arab Universities, the CHEA International Quality Group, the European Association for Distance Learning, the European Association for International Education, or business program accreditation councils does not in itself confer academic accreditation.

Transcript Research prefers to go directly to the higher education institutions themselves when identifying recognized/accredited institutions and programs. As a result, we do not use third-party databases including the World Higher Education Database, the International Handbook of Universities, or other compilation lists of institutions as definitive sources of academic recognition. In those countries where the Ministry of Higher Education does not have a website, we may write to the Ministry, reference the national government's websites, or seek other ways of getting the information directly from the government such as through education legislation, national education plans, government statistics, or other government-approved education information often published by or in conjunction with the Ministry of Higher Education. 
Religiously-affiliated institutions and theological schools, medical institutions, legal education, training providers, professional membership organizations, and online or distance learning providers are among those types of institutions that may require additional research. In addition, specialized educational programs may be recognized by different educational authorities, such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Textiles, and so forth.
Transcript Research is unable to research educational institutions before the application & documents are submitted and paid because the recognition of the institution and program is a significant portion of the evaluation process. In some instances, if we determine that an institution does not have the type of recognition that we consider comparable to regional accreditation, we may cancel the application and refund the applicant fee, but we will try to do that within a short period of time after receiving the application for evaluation and educational records so that prospective applicants may make other arrangements