AGENCY FOR SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION - SERVICES OF COURT INTERPRETERS - TRANSLATION OF TEXTS OF FOREIGN HIGHER EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS INTO CROATIAN
The National ENIC/NARIC Office, which operates within the Agency for Science and Higher Education, is a reporting center on academic mobility and the recognition of higher education qualifications, a member of the European Network of National Reporting Centers on Academic Mobility and Recognition, and the National Information Center for Academic Recognition.
One of the main tasks of this office is the recognition of foreign higher education qualifications, which since July 1, 2004 performs on the basis of the Act on the Recognition of Foreign Educational Qualifications (Official Gazette, no. 158/2003 and 198/2003) and in accordance with the Act on Scientific Activity and Higher Education (Official Gazette no. 123/03, 198/03, 105/04, and 174/04).
The recognition procedure is a complex process whose purpose is to "place" an educational qualification (higher education qualifications, certificates, diplomas, and other public documents of completed primary and secondary education) obtained abroad within the Croatian education system in a way that determines which level of education it corresponds to in Croatia. The entire procedure is conducted based on documentation, some of which must be translated into Croatian by a certified translator.
We would like to emphasize that when translating a foreign higher education qualification, court interpreters are neither competent nor authorized to independently interpret the original qualification title and substitute it with the title of a (in their opinion) equivalent Croatian qualification.
As an example, we will mention the most common cases where, due to the court interpreter's own interpretation, a Bachelor's degree from a foreign language is translated as "diplomirani" or a Ph.D. is translated as "Doctor of Philosophy." These translations are incorrect and create a false impression or future expectations for the party seeking recognition of such a qualification.
In such translations, we often find that a person, for example, earned the title of Bachelor of Economics upon completing an economics program in the U.S. This type of translation is inaccurate and illogical because in the U.S.- there is no program in the U.S. after which a person would earn the title "Diplomirani ekonomist" (Graduate Economist), as this is not a title awarded in the U.S., just as one cannot earn the title "Bachelor of Arts" by completing studies in the Republic of Croatia, since no program in Croatia leads to such a degree.
The translation of a Croatian higher education qualification into English (earned under the new system in the Republic of Croatia since the 2005/06 academic year) is regulated by Articles 71 and 72 of the Act on Scientific Activity and Higher Education (Official Gazette no. 123/03, 198/03, 105/04 and 174/04) and the earned titles may be translated as follows: Bachelor = baccalaureus/baccalaurea, Master of Science or Master of Arts /mr. sc./, unless otherwise specified by a special Regulation from Article 71 of the aforementioned law.
When translating foreign qualifications, one is not permitted the freedom to independently interpret the originally awarded title listed on the qualification, as there is a special, legally regulated process for such a purpose (recognition).
By stating the originally awarded title on the qualification, court interpreters would simultaneously assist in the recognition process, as it is often the case with some qualifications that the original title is not clearly visible (e.g., due to a stamp over the title—such as with Russian or Ukrainian qualifications). In these cases, it is extremely important for us to know the exact title the person has obtained, and a translation by a court-appointed interpreter can be extremely useful if the obtained title is written in the original language or, if possible, in the original script (Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, etc.).