Validation of Your Studies in Colombia

If you have foreign studies and decide to come to Colombia, you will need to carry out a procedure to be able to practice your degree legally through validation. This is the way to have recognition of a higher education degree. If you complete this recognition process, your degree will have the same validity as one obtained in our country. In Colombia, everything related to validation is regulated by resolution 10687 of October 9, 2019.

This procedure is necessary if you want to work in the public sector or if your employer imposes this requirement. Generally, it is at the discretion of the contractor to require this or not. However, there are also a series of regulated professions that, in any case, need validation for professional practice in Colombia.

Process advantages:

• Authorization for professional practice in the public sector.
• Participation in public tenders.
• Ability to pursue a regulated career.

Validation of other degrees

Not only undergraduate degrees can be validated. Technical degrees, technology degrees, master's degrees, specializations, and doctorates can also be validated.

To carry out this process, the following steps must be followed:

1. You must create a user in the higher education validation information system.
2. Complete the form and attach the documents. In this step, you must pay a fee of 697,000 COP for undergraduate, technical, or technology degrees and 792,003 COP for postgraduate degrees.
3. The Ministry of Education will review the documents and may need you to correct the form or upload a pending document.
4. The Ministry will also verify that the signatures and documents are legal.
5. It will be verified within the criteria applicable to validation.
6. Decision and notification of the application.

Types of validation

There are 3 types of accreditation, with different timeframes for decision-making.

1. High-quality recognition accreditation: For careers from institutions that have this type of verification. The entity that issued the degree will determine the type of application. The time will not exceed 60 days.

2. Administrative precedent criteria: This method will be used when the degree to be validated matches other Colombian degrees, but does not exist within Colombia. It will have a time of no more than 120 calendar days, counted from the following business day it is reported to the platform. That is, if I make the application on a Friday, starting Monday, 120 calendar days would begin to count for notification of the declaration.

3. Academic Evaluation Criteria: With this method, a comprehensive analysis of the degree will be performed. Therefore, contents, program hours, duration, and modality will be evaluated. If high-quality accreditation or administrative precedent is not possible, this will be the way validation is carried out.

Through some type of test, the academic level will be determined, the name of the degree in Colombia that you want to validate must also be found, establish the academic area to which it belongs, clarify academic evaluations, and establish the differences or similarities between the programs.

The time for making this decision will be 180 calendar days after the following business day on which the application was made. That is, if I make the application on a Friday, starting Monday, 180 calendar days would begin to count for notification of the declaration.

General requirements:

• Application form.
• Identity document may be:
  • Colombian citizenship card
  • Foreign resident card
  • Valid passport
  • If Venezuelan national, Special Permanence Permit.
• Diploma or degree legalized and apostilled by the country of origin.
• If the document is not in Spanish, it must be translated by an official translator.

Other documentation:

• Certificate of subjects including credits taken, apostilled and legalized.
• Certified, apostilled and legalized grades.
• Academic program.

You will need some specific requirements if you wish to validate one of the following degrees:

• Law

Take the following subjects at a Colombian university: Administrative law, constitutional law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and labor procedure.

• Any career related to the health area

Certificate of professional practices or rotating internships duly apostilled and legalized.

• Public accounting

Must take the following subjects at a Colombian university: Commercial law, tax law, labor law, accounting standards, and concepts on international financial reporting standards.

• Teaching degrees focused on pedagogy or undergraduate education degrees

A certificate issued by the institution that trained the applicant clarifying the development of formative experiences in school environments, as well as their practice as a teacher in the classroom and the creation of educational projects. This achieves accreditation of an equivalence of credits or practice hours.

According to information provided by the Ministry of Education, the degrees with the highest validation requests:

• University Master's in neuropsychology and education.
• Medical surgeon.
• University Master's in educational technology and digital competencies.
• University Master's in language didactics in early childhood and primary education.
• University Master's in business direction and administration.
• University Master's in psychopedagogy.
• University Master's in inclusive and intercultural education.
• University Master's in language and literature didactics in secondary and high school education.
• University Master's in integrated management systems for occupational risk prevention, quality, environment, and corporate social responsibility.

List of institutions with the highest validation requests:

• International University of La Rioja.
• University of Zulia.
• Ibero-American International University.
• Metropolitan University of Education, Science and Technology UMECIT.
• Central University of Venezuela.
• National Autonomous University of Mexico.
• University of the Andes.
• Ministry of Health.
• University of Buenos Aires.
• Experimental Pedagogical University Libertador.

Countries with the highest validation requests:

• Spain
• Venezuela
• Mexico
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Panama
• United States of America
• Chile
• Puerto Rico
• Cuba

Are you interested in more information? Write to us here and we will gladly attend to your inquiry.

Bibliography:

• https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/portal/convalidaciones/Convalidaciones-Educacion-Superior/350670:Conozca-el-proceso
• https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1780/articles-387731%5Frecurso%5F1.pdf
• https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/CNA/1741/article-187352.html#:~:text=Existen%20normas%20espec%C3%ADficas%20que%20reconocen,Agron%C3%B3micas%20y%20forestales%2C%20T%C3%A9cnico%20Constructor%2C
• Right of petition 2022-ER-539651