Diploma and Academic Transcript Translation

The documents are issued by the student affairs office of the university concerned, and, in the case of secondary education, by the relevant directorate together with the school administration. In recent years a great many institutions have begun issuing versions that carry an electronic signature and a QR code; this helps with verification, but it also places an extra responsibility on the translation.

Converting the marking scale: the critical technical question

Higher education in Türkiye generally works on a four-point scale and secondary education on a hundred-point scale; letter grades (AA, BA, BB and so on) and their numerical equivalents can differ from one institution to the next. The scales used in destination countries are something else entirely: in Germany 1 is the best mark and 5 a fail; the United Kingdom works through classifications; the United States uses a four-point GPA, but with different letter bands.

The golden rule here is this: the translator does not convert marks. The translator’s task is to carry the mark printed on the document, together with the institution’s own explanation of its scale, into the target language in full. Converting that mark to the scale of the destination country is a matter for the recognition body. A conversion made by a translator in good faith renders the document falsified and puts the file at risk.

For that reason the scale key on the reverse or at the foot of the transcript, the table footnotes and the statement of the pass mark must never be skipped. That single box is all an assessor needs in order to make the conversion.

The decimal separator is a quieter trap. On a Turkish document the overall average is written with a comma, as “3,42”; an English-speaking assessor may take the same string for a thousands separator, or simply hesitate because a full stop is what they are used to. Numerical fields therefore have to follow the writing convention of the target language, while the value itself stays untouched.

Making course titles legible to a recognition body

Course titles on a transcript are usually abbreviated: “Mat II”, “Genel Fiz. Lab.”, “MTP 302”. Everyone in the department in Türkiye knows what these stand for; to a foreign recognition officer they are meaningless strings. A good translation expands the abbreviation and, where it matters, keeps the course code alongside it.

The second issue is choosing the right terminology for the field. Should “İşletme” be rendered as business or as management; should “Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering” be read as engineering or as informatics – decisions of this kind directly affect where the receiving institution places the course within its own curriculum. The more recognisable the course title, the more smoothly credit transfer runs.

Where ECTS credits appear as a separate column they are always preserved; institutions in Europe look at ECTS far more closely than at local credits. Confusing the credit column with the hours column can make a student’s workload look lighter than it really was.

The structure of the transcript has to survive as well. Semester headings, repeated courses, exemption entries, courses brought in on transfer and semester averages are what give the document its reading logic. A transcript translation flattened into a plain list by merging the columns may be technically complete, yet it slows the assessment down; the officer wants to see the same information side by side, as it appears in the original.

A diploma and a graduation certificate are not the same thing

The provisional graduation certificate issued while the ceremony is awaited does not stand in for the diploma; more often than not it carries a validity period on its face. Some foreign universities will process it under a conditional offer, others will not accept it at all. The Diploma Supplement is a separate document setting out the content, length and level of the programme, and European applications ask for it in most cases.

There is a fourth document that recognition applications frequently call for: the course descriptions, in other words the syllabus. This is a file, often dozens of pages long, giving the weekly topics and the reading list for every course on the transcript. Because it is bulky it tends to be the last thing anyone remembers; yet without it the recognition body cannot rule on professional equivalence and the process is put on hold.

On the secondary school side, conveying the type of school accurately carries its own weight. An Anatolian high school, a vocational high school, a religious vocational (imam hatip) high school and a science high school are different programmes; folding them all into a single generic equivalent hides the substance of the education the student received. The type of school, the field of graduation and, where given, the field and branch information are each preserved separately.

Originals, certified copies and scans

There is only one original diploma and its loss is difficult to make good, which is why the original should never be sent to any institution. A certified copy issued by the university or a notarised copy is used instead. The translation is based on that copy, and it states plainly whether the document is an original or a certified copy.

With scanned copies, resolution becomes a quality question in its own right. Embossed seals, course codes in small type and corrections added by hand all turn illegible in a low-resolution scan. Any area that cannot be read has to be marked “illegible” in the translation, and that note leaves a question mark behind at the receiving institution. A good scan makes every step that follows easier.

Level of certification and country differences

Educational documents count as administrative documents, and the apostille is issued by the governor’s office or the district governor’s office. The great majority of university applications abroad call for a notarised translation and an apostille together; at the admission stage alone, some schools will make do with a scanned sworn translation and ask for the original at enrolment.

Country differences are very pronounced here. In Germany the classification held in the anabin database is decisive in the recognition assessment; where your institution sits in that table matters as much as the translation does. The United States has no sworn translator system, but recognition is obtained from a separate organisation such as WES or ECE, and those organisations may require the document to come directly from the university in a sealed envelope. In Italy a declaration of value (Dichiarazione di valore) obtained from the consulate is usually required in addition to the translation. For the details you can consult our countries page.

Mistakes peculiar to these documents

• “Converting” the grade average to the scale of the destination country. That is assessment rather than translation, and it is not the translator’s job.
• Leaving the scale key, the footnotes and the reverse side out of the translation.
• Translating the name of the university and faculty freely. Where the institution has its own official name in the foreign language, that is the one to use.
• Spelling the name on the diploma differently from the passport; in recognition files that single discrepancy can add months to the process.
• Omitting the verification address and code from the translation of a QR-coded, electronically signed document.
• Forgetting a double major or minor diploma and having only the main diploma translated.

Do not let the application deadline pass you by

Closing dates in educational applications are unforgiving, and the apostille step is the one people rarely allow for. Once you have scanned and sent us your diploma and transcript, we will go through which layers of certification are needed, which language the documents have to be translated into and whether anything is missing from your file. Language options are on our languages page and the basis on which we work is set out on our pricing page; you can send us your file through the quotation form.

This page is for information only; the format of the document and the chain of certification vary according to the country in which the transaction takes place. We recommend confirming the current position with the authority handling your case.