I've continued doing some more research on the different options we have available to obtain a master's degree equivalent at a great price. Based on my findings so far, it's highly likely that Italy's Master Universitario di I Livello is enough to receive a Master's degree evaluation here in the United States. This is a 1 year post-bachelor's specialization course which although is not Italy's version of a master's degree(Laurea magistrale), it still could qualify as such in the United States.
I say this upon using the WES Degree Equivalency tool. I've attached a screenshot at the end of this post. I tried it with many universities and they all came back as a U.S. master's degree. Although the tool doesn't specifiy if it's 1st level (Master Universitario I Livello) or 2nd level (Master Universitario II Livello), I'm confident the 1st level qualifies because the 1st level is equal to a EQF level 7 while the 2nd level is equal to a EQF Level 8(PhD).
There are many of these 1 year courses being offered across Italy at amazing prices($1000 - $3000). What I like the most is that many of them are offered directly from the universities as opposed to using a middle man company such as occurs with Spain's business schools/companies for the titulo propios.
I'm on my quest to sign up to one of these Level 1 Master's from Italy and I'll be reporting back on my results.
I've already found a few of interest that are available online, 24/7 and self paced.
My top choices so far are only available in Italian but I've always wanted a good excuse to learn Italian and sing Italian love songs.
I'm sure I'll find one based on text only, so translating the material should help me out.
If anyone knows anything about this, please share it here. I greatly appreciate any insight others may have on the subject.
05-27-2021, 09:33 AM (This post was last modified: 05-27-2021, 09:38 AM by cacoleman1983.)
The Master Universitario I Livello is equivalent to the Spanish version of the Master Propio degree. A vast majority of propio degrees are not considered equivalent to a US regionally accredited Masters degree because they do not grant access to a doctorate degree and are not recognized by the Spanish government. Some US evaluators will not evaluate propio degrees at all while others only equate them to graduate credit only, a graduate certificate, an additional accredited Bachelors, or non-accredited Masters. However, this may be different in Italy as the government themselves may recognize it there which may lead an evaluator to recognize it as an accredited Masters.
(05-27-2021, 09:33 AM)cacoleman1983 Wrote: The Master Universitario I Livello is equivalent to the Spanish version of the Master Propio degree. A vast majority of propio degrees are not considered equivalent to a US regionally accredited Masters degree because they do not grant access to a doctorate degree and are not recognized by the Spanish government. Some US evaluators will not evaluate propio degrees at all while others only equate them to graduate credit only, a graduate certificate, an additional accredited Bachelors, or non-accredited Masters. However, this may be different in Italy as the government themselves may recognize it there which may lead an evaluator to recognize it as an accredited Masters.
Thanks for the feedback. I feel like if one could at least get evaluated as a RA BS for these Spain master propios it's a great deal!
On the other hand, I believe that the the Italy Level 1 Masters may be seen more favorably then the Spain propio. Many universities are granting the Italy Master Level 1 while in Spain it is for the most part these middleman businesses which are granting them and being certified by universities.
Hopefully more people can come forward with their evaluation experiences. If the price is right, I may just do both a Spain propio and Italy Master Level 1.
05-27-2021, 11:30 AM (This post was last modified: 05-27-2021, 11:34 AM by eLearner.)
(05-27-2021, 09:33 AM)cacoleman1983 Wrote: The Master Universitario I Livello is equivalent to the Spanish version of the Master Propio degree. A vast majority of propio degrees are not considered equivalent to a US regionally accredited Masters degree because they do not grant access to a doctorate degree and are not recognized by the Spanish government. Some US evaluators will not evaluate propio degrees at all while others only equate them to graduate credit only, a graduate certificate, an additional accredited Bachelors, or non-accredited Masters. However, this may be different in Italy as the government themselves may recognize it there which may lead an evaluator to recognize it as an accredited Masters.
All facts. Although, as I use them myself, I wonder sometimes about how we use the terms "recognized" and "registered" in the Spanish education sense. I bring this up because, on the one hand the propio degree type is not registered by subject with the Spanish government, but on the other hand the degree type was established by the Spanish government itself and is legally authorized by them which would imply recognition at least in the associative sense.
I dunno, I just worry that when we use the term "not recognized" it makes people on the outside mistakenly equate it to "not legitimate" or something to that effect. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there are still people who think nationally accredited degrees are not accredited despite the term itself implying accreditation, so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
(05-27-2021, 09:33 AM)cacoleman1983 Wrote: The Master Universitario I Livello is equivalent to the Spanish version of the Master Propio degree. A vast majority of propio degrees are not considered equivalent to a US regionally accredited Masters degree because they do not grant access to a doctorate degree and are not recognized by the Spanish government. Some US evaluators will not evaluate propio degrees at all while others only equate them to graduate credit only, a graduate certificate, an additional accredited Bachelors, or non-accredited Masters. However, this may be different in Italy as the government themselves may recognize it there which may lead an evaluator to recognize it as an accredited Masters.
All facts. Although, as I use them myself, I wonder sometimes about how we use the terms "recognized" and "registered" in the Spanish education sense. I bring this up because, on the one hand the propio degree type is not registered by subject with the Spanish government, but on the other hand the degree type was established by the Spanish government itself and is legally authorized by them which would imply recognition at least in the associative sense.
I dunno, I just worry that when we use the term "not recognized" it makes people on the outside mistakenly equate it to "not legitimate" or something to that effect. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there are still people who think nationally accredited degrees are not accredited despite the term itself implying accreditation, so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
I remember seeing that someone posted Universidad Isabel 1 was in the WES database. I just checked now and it's not there anymore. Could this mean they've been blacklisted? Nebrija is still there and some Spain business schools are partnered with them.
Most of the Italian Universities I'm looking at are all there. Not being there doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing but it is quite strange to see Isabel come and go if that's the case.
(05-27-2021, 09:33 AM)cacoleman1983 Wrote: The Master Universitario I Livello is equivalent to the Spanish version of the Master Propio degree. A vast majority of propio degrees are not considered equivalent to a US regionally accredited Masters degree because they do not grant access to a doctorate degree and are not recognized by the Spanish government. Some US evaluators will not evaluate propio degrees at all while others only equate them to graduate credit only, a graduate certificate, an additional accredited Bachelors, or non-accredited Masters. However, this may be different in Italy as the government themselves may recognize it there which may lead an evaluator to recognize it as an accredited Masters.
All facts. Although, as I use them myself, I wonder sometimes about how we use the terms "recognized" and "registered" in the Spanish education sense. I bring this up because, on the one hand the propio degree type is not registered by subject with the Spanish government, but on the other hand the degree type was established by the Spanish government itself and is legally authorized by them which would imply recognition at least in the associative sense.
I dunno, I just worry that when we use the term "not recognized" it makes people on the outside mistakenly equate it to "not legitimate" or something to that effect. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there are still people who think nationally accredited degrees are not accredited despite the term itself implying accreditation, so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
I remember seeing that someone posted Universidad Isabel 1 was in the WES database. I just checked now and it's not there anymore. Could this mean they've been blacklisted? Nebrija is still there and some Spain business schools are partnered with them.
Most of the Italian Universities I'm looking at are all there. Not being there doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing but it is quite strange to see Isabel come and go if that's the case.
(05-27-2021, 12:10 PM)rbat2021 Wrote: I remember seeing that someone posted Universidad Isabel 1 was in the WES database. I just checked now and it's not there anymore. Could this mean they've been blacklisted? Nebrija is still there and some Spain business schools are partnered with them.
Most of the Italian Universities I'm looking at are all there. Not being there doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing but it is quite strange to see Isabel come and go if that's the case.
It's still there. It's under Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla. ENEB is still there, too. However, if you're not logged into their site you can't see Isabel as WES limits how much data can be retrieved from the public search tool.
05-27-2021, 02:44 PM (This post was last modified: 05-27-2021, 03:04 PM by cacoleman1983.)
(05-27-2021, 11:30 AM)eLearner Wrote:
(05-27-2021, 09:33 AM)cacoleman1983 Wrote: The Master Universitario I Livello is equivalent to the Spanish version of the Master Propio degree. A vast majority of propio degrees are not considered equivalent to a US regionally accredited Masters degree because they do not grant access to a doctorate degree and are not recognized by the Spanish government. Some US evaluators will not evaluate propio degrees at all while others only equate them to graduate credit only, a graduate certificate, an additional accredited Bachelors, or non-accredited Masters. However, this may be different in Italy as the government themselves may recognize it there which may lead an evaluator to recognize it as an accredited Masters.
All facts. Although, as I use them myself, I wonder sometimes about how we use the terms "recognized" and "registered" in the Spanish education sense. I bring this up because, on the one hand the propio degree type is not registered by subject with the Spanish government, but on the other hand the degree type was established by the Spanish government itself and is legally authorized by them which would imply recognition at least in the associative sense.
I dunno, I just worry that when we use the term "not recognized" it makes people on the outside mistakenly equate it to "not legitimate" or something to that effect. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there are still people who think nationally accredited degrees are not accredited despite the term itself implying accreditation, so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
Yeah it seems that the Spanish government is playing semantics although I get what they are doing in that the propio degrees by themselves allow universities to work with other companies with certification and without government oversight which makes their programs practically equivalent to a state-approved Masters degree here in the US although we are seeing accreditation based on transfer credit (ECTS) for less than a Masters due to university certification. I believe evaluators should start using the terms "state-approved" or "state-authorized" instead of "non-accredited". That will make these evaluations look much better to the employer since these Masters programs are not really meant for academic purposes.
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