Getting your Turkish degree recognised in the UK (ENIC)

What recognition means in the UK

There is no state body in the UK that stamps a foreign degree as valid. What exists is UK ENIC, the national agency for comparing qualifications, which issues a Statement of Comparability saying which UK level your Turkish diploma corresponds to, and separate statements for particular purposes: an English-proficiency statement for visas where the degree was taught in English, and statements for professional regulators. Employers, universities and the Home Office use these because they cannot read a Turkish diploma. Regulated professions (medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, teaching, law) have their own registration processes, covered in our profession guides, and ENIC is at most one input to those. The UK ENIC page explains the translation format; this guide is the sequence.

The documents ENIC asks for

ENIC works from your final certificate and your record of study. For a Turkish university degree that means the diploma (lisans, yüksek lisans or doktora diploması) and the transcript (not dökümü); many Turkish universities also issue a bilingual diploma supplement, which is worth including because it describes the programme in Bologna terms. For a school leaver it means the lise diploması and the school transcript. Where the diploma has not yet been printed, the graduation certificate (mezuniyet belgesi) stands in for it, with the transcript. ENIC requires certified translations of documents not in English. Its Translation Waiver Service, which for a fee lets applicants submit certain languages untranslated, covers fourteen languages, and Turkish is not among them; a Turkish diploma therefore always needs a translation, whichever statement you apply for.

How to prepare the translation

A diploma is usually one page and a transcript three to six, so the cost is modest (£10 for the diploma, £30–60 for the transcript, £10–20 for a supplement) and turnaround is one to two working days. The details that matter to ENIC are the exact degree title, the faculty and department, the duration in years and credits, the grading scale (Turkish 4.0 GPA or 100-point scales, with the university’s own conversion table where printed), and the date of graduation. We translate the Turkish face of the diploma even where a university has printed an English version on the back, and keep the Turkish title in brackets after the English so that ENIC can match it to its database of Turkish institutions. Every page carries our certification with the accuracy statement, date, signatory and company details. The sample diploma translation shows the layout.

The application

Applications are made online through ENIC’s portal: choose the statement type, upload the certificate, transcript and translations, pay the fee and wait. ENIC publishes its fees and its standard and fast-track turnaround times; both change, so check the site rather than relying on figures quoted elsewhere. ENIC may ask for further documents, such as course descriptions where the programme is unusual, or for verification directly from the university, which can add weeks; Turkish universities respond to such requests at their own pace, and a graduate can sometimes speed it by asking the öğrenci işleri office to expect the enquiry. Apply in the name that appears on your passport and make sure the diploma translation uses the same spelling; ENIC matches the applicant to the documents by name, and a Turkish character dropped in one place and kept in another is a frequent cause of a query. If your university has changed its name since you graduated, tell ENIC the former name, since its records may list the institution under either.

Using the statement

• Employers accept the statement as evidence of level; some also want the translated transcript for subject content.
• Universities use it for postgraduate admission alongside the translated transcript; UCAS requires the translation to be by a professional, not by the applicant.
• The Home Office accepts the English-proficiency statement for degree-taught-in-English evidence in Skilled Worker and other routes.
• Regulators such as the GMC and NMC run their own verification; check their pages before paying ENIC for a statement they do not require.

Why applications stall

• Translating only the diploma and not the transcript, then being asked for it.
• A translation of the university’s English back page that gives a different degree title from the Turkish front.
• Applying for a Statement of Comparability when the purpose needed the English-proficiency statement, and paying twice.
• Self-translated documents, which ENIC and UCAS do not accept.
• A temporary graduation certificate submitted without explaining that the diploma is not yet issued.

The UK ENIC checklist summarises the items; we translate and certify, and ENIC decides the comparison.