Translation of Education Documents for Spain

Homologación and equivalencia: two different outcomes

Recognition of a foreign diploma in Spain can end in one of two ways, and you need to know from the outset which one you are after. The first is your degree being treated as equal to a particular Spanish professional title; this is what anyone wishing to work in a regulated profession needs, and the comparison of content is made in detail. The second is your degree being treated as corresponding to a general academic level, which is usually enough to go on to postgraduate study. The body you deal with is the Ministerio de Educación. Which route you need turns on your own aim: continuing in academic study, or working in the profession.

That distinction bears directly on the set of documents. Where a professional title is to be matched, course contents, placement records and the length of the programme are all read closely. For a correspondence of level, the diploma and the academic transcript are usually enough. Choosing the wrong route means the file is declared incomplete months later.

What each document is for

The diploma shows the degree. The academic transcript, because it proves the course load and the length of study, is the basic document in both the level and the content examination. Course contents carry weight only where a professional match is sought; there they are expected to have been obtained officially from the university and approved by it. A student certificate shows a current enrolment. A language certificate is looked for separately on programmes taught in Spanish.

Aim	Where the examination falls
Matching to a professional title	Course contents, duration, placement records
Correspondence to an academic level	Diploma and academic transcript
Admission to a programme	The university’s own criteria

The main source of refusal

The clearest rule in Spain concerns the translation: unless it has been made by a sworn translator appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it does not count as valid. This is the commonest reason for files coming back, and no quality of content makes up for it. The second frequent problem is course contents being submitted in a professional matching application without official approval – taken off a web page, for instance. The third is that the explanation of the marking scale is missing from the transcript; a mark cannot be read without knowing the scale.

At which step translation comes in

The order runs like this: the original documents and their official annexes are gathered, the certification step in Türkiye is completed, and the whole text – the certification endorsement included – is then translated into Spanish. Leaving the translation to last removes the risk of the endorsement going untranslated. A sworn translator’s translation is bound to the source document. You can see which document needs which approval on our document page, and follow the differences between countries in our country guide.

Preparing the course contents file

In Spanish files that seek a professional match, course contents are the largest part of the process, and preparing them takes work of its own. The contents are expected to be obtained as an official letter from the university, bearing a seal and a signature; a text downloaded from a web page does not count as official even where it carries the same information. For anyone who graduated long ago the curriculum may have changed, and the contents for the year of graduation then have to be requested from the university. A gap between the current curriculum and an older graduation raises a question mark in the examination.

Volume needs planning too. The contents of every course on a four-year programme can come to more, in translation volume, than all the other documents put together. The first thing to do, then, is to ask which courses are genuinely required; in some files only the contents of courses directly related to the field are wanted. Narrowing the scope brings down both the time and the cost markedly.

• Obtain the contents from the university, official and sealed.
• Ask for the curriculum of your year of graduation.
• Ask in advance which courses are required.
• Keep the terminology consistent with the transcript.

Knowing which route your application in Spain is taking also helps when a file comes back. In professional matching applications the institution usually writes out plainly which areas of content it finds wanting, and that is a road map showing which courses to submit in addition. Sending all the contents again without reading the reasons is a common but needless reaction, and it starts the examination over.

Another detail is that Spanish universities work on a credit system. If the transcript does not explain how credits are calculated, the assessor cannot work out the total load. Most Turkish universities give that explanation on the reverse of the transcript or on a separate sheet, and that sheet has to go into the translation as well. This one missing page is the commonest reason for files being put on hold.

A plan for copies should be made at the outset too: the same document may have to be submitted separately to the university, to the recognition application and, where needed, to the professional authority.

When planning a budget it helps to know that Spanish files come at two quite different scales. A file seeking only a correspondence of level consists of a handful of documents and has a predictable volume. A file seeking a match to a professional title can, with the course contents, run to hundreds of pages. The difference between these two scenarios arises from two different applications made by the same person with the same diploma. The first step, therefore, is to settle the aim, and the second to ask the relevant unit about the scope. Once the scope is fixed, the translation plan is drawn up once and does not grow afterwards; in files that begin in uncertainty, the cost goes on rising throughout.

Files that call for course contents run long, and knowing the page count in advance makes the budget clear. Look at our pricing page, or upload your documents and request a quotation.

This page is meant as a guide; countries’ approval regimes and the document formats they require may be updated over time. Settling the form the institution wants at the outset saves doing the work twice.