International qualifications 2013 (pdf) - CUKAS

Qualifications currently offered
duration of the Hojere Forberedelseseksamen (HF). A separate
diploma will be issued.
Egypt
EVALUATION
Thanaweya A’ama (General Secondary School Certificate)
Al-Azhar General Secondary School Certificate
Acceptable at 70% or better in lieu of GCSE on a subject for
subject basis (except English Language).
Will need to be supplemented by acceptable qualifications that
are widely used for entry to HE, eg GCE or SQA awards.
Diploma (Two years)
Comparable to the BTEC National Diploma.
GRADING SYSTEM
The minimum pass mark is 40% except for Arabic and religion,
where 50% is required.
EDUCATION SYSTEM
All school education is under the centralised control of the
Ministry of Education. A nine-year system of ‘basic education’ is
followed by three years of secondary education culminating in the
School Certificate examination in 13 subjects.
Candidates are required to take the examination over two years.
The second and third years of secondary education are
considered as two stages of the Thanaweya A’ama. There is a
core of compulsory courses plus electives, which must include at
least one course from arts and one from science, chosen
according to the student’s intended career. The medium of
instruction is Arabic apart from language schools which use both
Arabic and English.
Al-Azhar schools are open only to Muslim children and place
additional emphasis on religious education. Boys and girls are
strictly segregated. Completion of secondary education leads to
the award of the Al-Azhar General Secondary Certificate.
ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
Entry to university in Egypt is based on the results of the School
Certificate and is highly competitive. An average mark of 70–75%
is required to meet matriculation requirements and some
university faculties (eg engineering and medicine) may demand
higher grades. The first degree may take from four to six years
depending upon specialisation.
Eritrea
EVALUATION
Eritrean Secondary Education Certificate Examinations (ESECE)
– a standard Matriculation examination given to high school
(grade 12) completed students. The ESECE is at the moment
serving as high school leaving examination and at the same time
as an entrance examination to post-secondary institutions of
higher education (IHE) in the country.
GRADING SYSTEM
All subjects in the ESECE are marked as a percentage and
grades are then assigned as follows:
A 75 – 100 excellent
B 65 – 74 very good
C 50 – 64 good
D 40 – 49 satisfactory
F below 40 fail
EDUCATION SYSTEM
The National Board for Higher Education (NBHE) is the body
mandated to oversee and manage the overall policies on higher
education in the country. Recently the NBHE has been made to
function under the Ministry of Education. The current system of
education in the country follows the 5 + 3 + 4 system (five years
of elementary education, three years of middle school education
and four years of high school education). Students may opt to join
technical and vocational schools after completing grade 10. At
primary school level students are taught in their mother language
but also take English as a language from the very beginning.
After completing elementary education, however, the medium of
instruction at all levels is English.
ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
Higher education in Eritrea is under the jurisdiction of the NBHE,
which is again encompassed under the Ministry of Education. The
national examination, the ESECE, is conducted and administered
by the NBHE after students complete their high school (grade 12)
education. Students are therefore admitted to the various
institutions of higher education in the country at degree and
diploma levels on the basis of the grades they earn in the
national exam (ESECE). Admission to highly competitive fields of
specialisation like medicine, pharmacy, engineering, computer
science, law, etc. might require higher grades in the ESECE.
Access to higher education has improved during the last five to
six years with the opening of new IHE but remains limited.
Female and blind students are admitted to IHE with a grade one
scale lower than the other students in order to encourage blind
students and increase the percentage of female students in IHE,
which remains about 25% currently.
A bachelor’s degree is the first degree offered by IHE after a
student earns between 140-145 credit hours in an IHE about 4
years (8 semesters) after passing the ESECE. Bachelor’s degrees
in engineering, pharmacy and law (LLB) require between 175-
180 credit hours in 5 years (10 semesters). This degree is
considered to be a standard degree by western standards and
students earning bachelor’s degrees from IHE in Eritrea are
directly enrolled in postgraduate programmes in Europe, USA,
Canada and other Middle East and African universities. MD
degrees in medicine and dentistry require eight years and
qualifying exams are given to students from partner universities
in the west in addition to the rigorous evaluation system used in
the School of Medicine and Dentistry every semester.
Estonia
EVALUATION
Riigieksamid (National examinations)
Gümnaasiumi lõputunnistus (Secondary School Leaving
Certificate)
Passes in five graduation examinations (a minimum of three
being from national examinations) may be considered acceptable
as satisfying general entrance requirements of UK HEIs (with the
exclusion of English language proficiency requirement).
INTERNATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS 19