Short answer: for a higher education degree obtained abroad to be recognised in Türkiye, the diploma, the transcript and in most cases the course descriptions are submitted with sworn translations. Recognition applications for higher education degrees are made to the Council of Higher Education, and its application guide sets out which document is required in which form.
Translation carries more weight in a recognition file than people expect: the assessor knows your institution and your courses only through the translation.
The core documents
| Document | Why it is required |
|---|---|
| Diploma | Evidence of graduation and of the title awarded |
| Transcript | Courses taken, credits and grades |
| Course descriptions (syllabus) | To compare course scope with the equivalent Turkish programme |
| Certificate of study duration | The normal length of the programme and the time actually spent |
| Passport entry-exit records | Confirmation of time actually spent abroad |
| Application form | The application itself |
Which of these must be apostilled, and in what form they are submitted, is set out in the application guide. Guides are updated; use the current version published by the institution rather than the older copies circulating online.
Course descriptions: the heaviest part of the file
What decides a recognition assessment is not the name of the degree but the scope of the courses. Course descriptions are therefore the bulkiest and most expensive translation item in most files.
Three things make the work easier.
Obtain the descriptions officially from your institution. Course descriptions copied from a website are usually not accepted; you need the school's own certified printout on letterhead.
Translate only the courses that are asked for. Where the guide does not require every course, the descriptions of subject-area courses may be enough. Establishing which courses are needed up front reduces the volume considerably.
Run the terminology from one list. If the same concept is translated differently in the diploma, the transcript and the course descriptions, the assessor sees two different courses. The whole file has to run through one pair of hands and one term list — which is why we take recognition files as a whole rather than piece by piece.
Grades and credits are explained, not converted
A 6 ECTS course and a 3-credit course are not the same thing, and converting between them is not the translator's job. The correct approach is:
- Credit and grade values are carried across exactly as they appear.
- The system in use (ECTS, semester hours and so on) is stated.
- Where the transcript prints a grading scale, that is translated too.
- The comparison is made by the assessment unit.
Producing an "approximate equivalent" is the riskiest error in the file: if the assessor sees a different figure in the source, the credibility of the whole translation comes into question.
Titles and programme names
Two education systems never map exactly onto one another. So:
- The programme name is translated as it stands; no invented Turkish equivalent is supplied.
- The title (Bachelor, Master, Diplom, Licence) is kept in its original form, with an explanation in brackets where useful.
- Faculty and department names are carried across as they appear.
This does not weaken the file — it strengthens it. The assessor wants to determine the equivalence themselves, not to be handed one.
Typical delays
A missing transcript page. A transcript submitted without its intermediate pages is treated as invalid. Check the page numbering.
Mismatched name spelling. If the spelling on the diploma differs from your passport, the file waits. The translation follows the passport — send the identity page too.
Adding course descriptions later. A file opened without the course descriptions attracts a deficiency notice and rejoins the queue. Preparing everything together is faster.
A document without an apostille. If the country that issued the diploma is party to the Hague Convention, an apostille is expected. If it is not, the consular legalisation chain applies.
Scan quality. Course descriptions in small type scanned at low resolution force an "illegible" note in the translation, which can count as a deficiency.
Seeing the cost in advance
Translation is priced per page, and course descriptions are usually the largest item. To see the cost before you commit:
- Scan the diploma and transcript.
- Work out the total page count of the course descriptions.
- Mark which courses the guide actually requires.
- Send all three together.
You then get the cost of the whole file in a single quote, instead of losing track of the budget while proceeding item by item.
Final check before applying
- Have you read the current application guide?
- Have you marked which documents need an apostille?
- Is the transcript complete, with no missing pages?
- Are the course descriptions the institution's official printout?
- Does the name spelling match your passport?
- Are the dates on the diploma and transcript consistent?
- Was every document translated with the same terminology?
Send us the document list from the guide and we will work out together how each document should be prepared.