ENEB Master Thread

[Dee12]

Its not chaos. Its nonsense. It can be evaluated in lesser degree but not to 0

I asked ECE what was the rationale behind my evaluation and received a lengthy explanation (below). TLDR: you can do a master propio in Spain with a 3-year degree bachelor, so the one-year master is considered the 4th year of post-secondary education here in the states.

"Thank you for your recent request to review the evaluation report, Reference Number XXXXXXXX.


I have reviewed the evaluation report, the information which you provided, and the information and resources used in preparing the evaluation report. Based on this review, I have determined that the conclusions of the evaluation report prepared for you correctly convey our judgment.

The basis for this equivalence is founded on a basic principle of applied comparative education which states the following:

► One year of full-time academic work at any one post-secondary institution is roughly the equivalent of one year of full-time academic work at any other post-secondary institution

ECE accepts and applies this major principle of applied comparative education in our evaluations because if this principle were not accepted as being true there would be no objective basis for comparing educational achievement, whether the institutions are located in the same country or in different countries.

What the application of this principle of applied comparative education means in terms of ECE evaluation policy is that ECE does take many quantitative factors into account when evaluating foreign degrees and comparing them to U.S. degrees.  Minimum admission requirements, a program’s normative full-time duration, and how a particular credential fits into the country’s degree structure are taken into consideration when we make an equivalence recommendation.

National degree frameworks vary from country to country, and when the degree frameworks of two countries are compared, often what such a comparison will show is that the two countries award degree qualifications at different levels or stages of education.  Such is true of a comparison of the Spanish degree framework and the U.S. degree framework.

The years of tertiary education as they relate to a national degree framework not only represent quantitative measurements (volume of study) but they also represent different stages (levels) of education as well. 

Therefore, the number of years of full-time study that a given program represents impacts the ECE equivalence because the years of study serve a dual purpose:  (1) measuring volume of study; and (2) measuring level of study.

In Spain, a Master in Project Management is defined as one year of full-time study and requires any undergraduate degree—including the three-year, short-cycle título de diplomado and título de ingeniero técnico—for admission. 

https://u2384123.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=-2FMy2WuHwfxHF5LkZu2nzJY0Vwi8aPvcSPH-2FmvHdQdnnkYlNjQKIXJzMzt1wPGQ5JDd45jV42IWrs0P0dR1WMm-2Bq1YjQrjzeZdvDqIkubUQo-3DE2ng_-2FCSPlV-2F5obI-2FvJGGdg7bbigdTHnx1aHWYpUQ7cHZNbYlJz-2BJJtbxTgRW2etqTvY986pTTh6R9SgomOR0MKRvjzaYdNRuwzoCW4iRbL-2FkUeFQqzgfyJ-2BC1lvEq0nnSzB8iG4ux9YLJikUVJ4A4xXpRvxQ5C-2BTNIYvVh0YDFosZOdebi4lh97FaP3LylNJWIWO-2FWpeFW-2F4rHWlnyVoTNorgRmNvHHPGZCSDYYj3SSDe68-3D

Because the minimum admission requirement is any three-year short-cycle degree, the Master in Project Management represents the FOURTH year of post-secondary education in Spain.

As you may be aware, the fourth year of post-secondary education in the U.S. represents the final year of study in a bachelor degree program and is referred to as the “senior year.”

Therefore, ECE considers all of the courses in the Master in Project Management to be equivalent to senior level coursework in a U.S. bachelor degree program.  By extension, ECE considers the Master in Project Management---which represents the culmination of four years of university study in Spain---to be equivalent to a U.S. bachelor degree.

This is because all bachelor degree programs in the U.S. are structured the same in that they all require a minimum of four years (eight semesters) of full-time university-level study, whether they are offered by the highest or lowest ranked university (please refer to the U.S. Department of Education and National Center for Education Statistics: https://u2384123.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=-2FMy2WuHwfxHF5LkZu2nzJYCd5hbGY8LouyT7Jq5VLzrlTYUBitTT0TOK3t8MCLzL1TvnsU45dnAM5wvpoZrPhg-3D-3DJicO_-2FCSPlV-2F5obI-2FvJGGdg7bbigdTHnx1aHWYpUQ7cHZNbYlJz-2BJJtbxTgRW2etqTvY9UK-2BsL1qRgsXZ3w6nVZ1iSKE1-2BjyuZpx4tDGpd7uSrESoVlRpXl-2FxVLsbP1nxF08L8znDd428b7ttSM-2FB3bhmP5HBJoiKr2BAMLeCpNHWWBSH4bcB7H1aIRfU2ezraag62OIEAaIG0tZGtaGTt6s6shHJ-2B-2F3i1YCqnVi51QjjCdk-3D ).

By extension, the U.S. Department of Education and National Center for Education Statistics have defined a U.S. master degree as follows:

“Master's degree: A degree awarded for successful completion of a program generally requiring 1 or 2 years of full-time college-level study beyond the bachelor's degree.” (https://u2384123.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=-2FMy2WuHwfxHF5LkZu2nzJYCd5hbGY8LouyT7Jq5VLzrlTYUBitTT0TOK3t8MCLzLMhugAsteWe95Fwg0BzG9oQ-3D-3DyXRN_-2FCSPlV-2F5obI-2FvJGGdg7bbigdTHnx1aHWYpUQ7cHZNbYlJz-2BJJtbxTgRW2etqTvY9rM7jj1wMeq0avmHW1zoycI4c9N90Y8BEWWA-2BFox3U6m-2BJAmlZwXGxAM7jMadeOKWbfKsXB-2BLt-2FG-2FU9W8ynJMF2a-2B-2FpK96Kwe1TDECc-2BD8kVNZBaJ2PRjGhGh9jm-2FZ6qsPQGnQ36qtQrt1jlA-2FVWzSWxdYys5nP-2BeVgwwo30wXbA-3D )

Therefore, graduate-level study in the U.S.---which builds upon a preceding 4-year bachelor degree in all cases in the United States---would only commence AFTER student begins the 5th year of university-level study.

Because the Master in Project Management only represents four year-level courses and does not include any fifth-year level courses, ECE does not consider any of the courses in the Master in Project Management to be the U.S. equivalent of graduate level study.  By extension, because none of the courses in the Master in Project management are equivalent to graduate-level study in the U.S., ECE does not consider it to be equivalent to a U.S. master degree.

I hope that information clarifies the evaluation criteria and policies that determined the results of your evaluation."