Tittens Howard

Hi, I am currently in the beginning stages of applying to immigrate to Canada and am looking into preparing my express entry profile.

I want to apply for my ECA but am unsure about one of my qualifications. I initially completed a 2 year HND and then used this to enter a degree programme at second year. As far as I can tell I am only required to provide transcripts etc relating to my degree in order to get credit for this, however I am not clear if having my HND credentials assessed too will give me extra points. The reason I say this is because on the CRS score calculator there is a question asking if I have completed a 2 year post-secondary diploma certificate in addition to my selected level of education. I’m not sure if I have misunderstood this but I think my answer should be yes to this, if so I gain extra points. Can anyone please clarify if I am correct in what I am thinking? I don’t want to pay extra to get my HND assessed if this is not required and of no benefit.

Any advice is much appreciated, thanks!

scilly

How old were you when you left high school?


Post-secondary education in Canada means after Grade 12, as that is High School Graduation. Most students are 18 at that time.

Tittens Howard

I was 18 when I finished my secondary education (G.C.S.E's and A-levels). I started my HND when I was 18, it is higher education and required A-levels.

christmasoompa

Nobody can tell you for sure unfortunately, but it sounds to me as though you'd get points for 2 qualifications. It's a tiny cost in the grand scheme of things, so worth a try if you need the points.

Snowy560

Even if the ECA comes back with credit for the HND be aware that you may get extra points on the CRS but when you make the application in response to an ITA the officer may (or may not) take a different view if s/he decides it's subsumed within the degree. This happened to someone on here about a year ago although the details might have been slightly different.

Tittens Howard

Yes, that was literally my next question. What if I get an ITA on the basis of these extra points and then it is viewed differently when my application is assessed.

It would be good to understand more about this, I will need to try to research further.

I have 433 points without including my HND as a second post-secondary diploma. When I include this it bring my points up to over 460. It seems a lot of extra points to me, which makes me wary I am missing something.

Engineer_abroad

This has been discussed a few time son this forum and I have seen different results.

My opinion is that someone with a HND (equivalent to the first 2 years of a bachelors degree) and then a degree (1 year top up) is entitled to the points for the bachelors degree only.

You get the points for your highest level of qualification. IMO to award more points to someone who did HND and then degree is unfair to those who did a straight 3 years bachelors, after all both people are educated to exactly the same level.

Snowy560

I'm generally in agreement in regards to a diploma that gives two years credit towards a degree, but I've heard it go either way. I'm not talking about what the ECA says: I'm talking about how it's interpreted in the context of IRCC assessing the application.

Tittens Howard

I entered my degree programme at second year; an HND usually gives credit for 1 year of a degree so long as it is of similar nature.

My HND is in electrical and electronic engineering and my degree is in mechanical engineering. I completed 2 sets of exams and 2 different final year projects for two different disciplines. I am currently employed as a mechanical engineer but I know my employer saw it as an advantage that I had qualifications in electronics too as in my role we work very closely with the electronics team.

Anyway, I can see your point, that's why I started this thread, I was afraid I was misunderstanding something. I will try to clarify this and will give an update if I get an answer for anyone else who is wondering.

In the meantime I might go ahead and base my profile on my bachelors degree and hope that the CRS scores follow a similar trend to last year and start to decrease.

scilly

Does the fact that most university degrees over here take 4 years mean anything when UK degrees are being assessed?

Engineer_abroad

Not really as both are signatories of the Washington accord which holds a bachelors degree in U.K. to equate to a bachelors degree in canada.

North American degrees are generally broader in their delivery so students generally do subjects outside the subject they major in. The UK system is generally deeper in a single more narrowed focus subject.