Finch2

Firstly, i have done my homework and have not been able to obtain a constructive answer.

Could someone who has had their U.K education evaluated let me know if they found it more or less credible to have done their studies through an AACSB accredated University in the U.K.

The AACSB is America's premier accreditation body of University's.

I have emailed various educational avaluators and they are unable to help. I am currently finishing an International Finance MSc at Kingston University and would like to know whether if it was evaulated in the U.S whether it is likely to be given the same standing over threre.

I am looking for an objective, constructive answer through a forum which i guess was built for this kind of purpose (to discuss people's experiences etc) so no Simple Simon's please.

Thanks in advance.

Bluegrass Lass

What is the purpose of why you want to know an equivalent evaluation? Are you trying to evalaute your classes in order to gain entry to a US university, or is it to determine employment-based opportunities?

Finch2

Curious as to know whether it has any bearing in terms of equivilent education to determine potential employent opportunities state side.

Bill_S

From the AACSB web site, it looks like only a handful of the UK's dozens of universities have gone through the motions to get accreditation. Given that a typical US employer has heard of only 2 or 3 UK universities, my feeling is that it would make little difference to a potential employer that Kingston is not on the list. A far greater hurdle is finding a US job that you qualify for, and convincing the employer to invest the considerable time and money needed to obtain a visa for a foreign national.

Bluegrass Lass

I was going to say the same thing. A master's is a masters - one from an accredited uni most likely won't make a diff. It hasn't made a diff for me.

CitySimon

Hi Finch2,

You might wish to check out the following link:

http://www.doe.mass.edu/educators/fo...uivalence.html

It's a list of the firms in the US which specificaly handle the conversion of non-US degrees to their US equivalency and includes a whole list of websites for you to dig through.

Even within the US, education levels vary dramatically from state to state so you may well find that your Masters degree in one state is equivalent to only a Batchers degree in another state.

Whether the backing of an AACBS credited university would have impact on that again may well vary between states.

From a personal position, being in New York, I was very frustrated to find that my Masters in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (not from the finest university in the world) was equivelant to a US Batchelors degree. However, it was not entirely relevant to my field of work (Computer Engineer) so had little impact on my job search aside from looking pretty on my resume.

Best of luck.

-Simon (Simple).

ChelleyP

That's not true. Within the US a bachelors is a bachelors and a masters is a masters, regardless of what state you are in.

I think you may find that apart from some specialist professions, educational qualifications aren't as important in the US as they are in the UK. In other words, many US employers will accept your UK qualifications as they are and won't need to see any proof of equivalency. The might even assume that a UK degree is more impressive than a US one. (They will have images of Oxford and Cambridge in their heads).

Still doesn't help you in terms of getting a visa though...

Bob

meh....it's an unregulated business, I wouldn't hold any thought to who you use, WES are quite popular, but depending on who you work for or why would depend on who would evaluate the degree, going to a uni that is on the list wouldn't mean anything.

CitySimon

Interesting. It might explain why the company who I went through for my qualification equivelancy doesn't exist any more though.

Bob

Or, and scarily enough this does happen, they might wonder if we have universities in the UK and are these real degrees, because they've only ever heard of OxBridge.

CitySimon

That would be more of the reason why I went through it. There are loads of stories around here with people having degrees from UK universities only to find out that the campus is an apartment over a chippy in Doncaster.

Peronally, my prospective employer requested I get the equivalency done. I got the job, but I was still irritated by the result of the conversion.

Dan725

I completely disagree with that....in my experience big employers are utterly and totally obsessed by education here. Can't check at least the bachelors degree box? Good luck with finding a half decent job. And nowadays....a Masters is quickly becoming the standard for any mid-career people. While it is also trending that way in the UK, it is nowhere near the fanatical extent that it is in the US.

Or did you just mean that they are not as bothered about translating out of country quals? In which case you have a point - I am coming to the end of my Masters Degree through a UK uni, and for sure I will be telling all any future employers that I have one without doing a pointless conversion.