Refugees
Discover the CIMEA
for Refugees service
The CIMEA for Refugees service is now active, through which CIMEA issues Statements of Comparability free of charge for foreign study qualifications to holders of international protection who have obtained the status of political asylum or subsidiary protection in Italy, subject to proof of such status.
Attention: Please note that access to the CIMEA for Refugees service is possible if specific requirements are satisfied. Please therefore carefully read the information below before registering on the dedicated CIMEA for Refugees platform and requesting our services through it.
Under which conditions is access to the CIMEA for Refugees service possible?
Country of Issue of your Qualification
Please note that CIMEA has activated the Automatic Recognition Database Italia (ARDI) for the qualifications issued in the education systems of the Countries that are signatories to the Lisbon Recognition Convention. For these countries, a Statement of Correspondence can be automatically generated by the system for each qualification, instantly and free of charge, and is immediately available for download.
For this reason, no requests for the CIMEA for Refugees service will be accepted for qualifications issued in these education systems.
Go to ARDI
Protection Status
The service is available exclusively for holders of international protection status obtained in Italy (Protezione Internazionale), in the form of political asylum status (Asilo Politico / Asilo) or Subsidiary Protection status (Protezione Sussidiaria).
Applications for the CIMEA for Refugees service received from holders of forms of protection not included in the above (e.g.: Protezione Speciale, Protezione Temporanea Emergenza Ucraina, etc.) are not acceptable.
Evidence of the Protection Status
The status is to be proven either through the Permesso di Soggiorno Elettronico - PSE (Italian Electronic Permit of Stay card) or through the Decisione della Commissione territoriale (Decision of the Territorial Commission) attesting the recognition of the protection status, which you will need to upload in the form of a scan copy while applying for our services. In both cases the document should be issued in Italy.
Documents differing from the above (e.g.: documents confirming a convocation regarding the protection status application, documents attesting the recognition of protection status issued by non-Italian authorities, etc.) are not acceptable. In case you do not (yet) hold the international protection status (e.g.: if you are an asylum seeker) and you need to have your qualification assessed by CIMEA, we kindly ask you to either wait until your protection status is recognized officially in Italy or refer to our regular services. More information is available here.
Available Educational Documents
Please check the list of the education documents you need to provide for your CIMEA application here.
If you have finished your study programme with a degree or an upper secondary school diploma but currently have no documentation (e.g.: transcripts and diplomas) providing the necessary evidence for it, and if it is unsafe to request them from the country where you studied, we suggest that you refer to the EQPR (European Qualifications Passport for Refugees) procedure, administered by the Council of Europe.
Personal Registration
Please note that each registration on the Diplome portal is only linked to the personal account of the holder of the qualification. No evaluation will be processed through intermediaries.
For which qualifications can you apply for this service?
The service is available exclusively for final official upper secondary school and higher education qualifications which are officially part of the national education system, issued by official institutions, that is to say those recognized/accredited in the national education system. The Statement of Comparability is available exclusively in Italian for qualifications issued by other education systems, different from the Italian one.
The Comparability request is referred to the qualification as a whole (e.g. Bachelor of Arts), and not to the single documents issued for that particular qualification (e.g.: diploma certificate, Diploma Supplement, Transcript of Records, etc.). They are therefore never considered separately, but rather as documents of one qualification, providing relevant information regarding the qualification itself, which is always the central focus of the service.
What is a Statement of Comparability?
Through a Comparability request you apply for a Statement of Comparability with the evaluation of a final qualification of the higher education system or upper secondary school granting access to Higher Education.
The Statement of Comparability is a document containing the information relating to the qualification, such as the recognition/accreditation of the institution that issued it in the national education system and the level of the qualification according to the Bologna Process and the European Qualifications Framework, in addition to the specifications of the comparability of your degree with an Italian qualification, the nature of the course (academic or professionally-oriented) and any other useful element to let it be evaluated by the competent bodies.
This comparison does not establish nor guarantee in any way the formal recognition of your qualification, but it is a useful indication for those institutions that evaluate qualifications during different recognition procedures: the Statement of Comparability fulfills the function of a non-binding opinion and it does therefore not bind the institutions in any way during their assessment and recognition procedures.
The Statement of Comparability neither verifies nor certifies the authenticity of the qualification on which the assessment is based.
How is a Comparability request processed?
During a Comparability request, CIMEA experts review your qualification by checking on its official status in the national system of reference, the recognition/accreditation status of the awarding institution and of the teaching institution (if different from the former) in their respective national education systems. On top of that, an analysis of the elements of the single qualification is performed, i.e.: nature, level, duration, number of credits, academic and professional rights granted in the education system of reference, study curriculum and any other elements specific to the single qualification. This has the aim to suggest, when possible, a comparability with an Italian qualification and the academic rights that the foreign qualification could grant in Italy according to CIMEA's non-legally binding opinion.
In the case of a positive evaluation, a Statement of Comparability will be produced in relation to the qualification evaluated.
In cases where it is impossible to produce the Statement of Comparability, CIMEA will issue a Statement of Denial for one or more of the following reasons:
1) non-official status of the institution, the degree course or the qualification in the system of reference;
2) lack of certification of the quality of the institution and of the course of studies by the competent national authorities, including reference to the place where the studies were performed;
3) cases of substantial difference with reference to the Lisbon Recognition Convention;
4) counterfeiting or alteration of documents;
5) documentary insufficiency linked to the request that prevented an evaluation/verification.
Learn more about the evaluation methodology carried out by CIMEA experts in the drafting of their statements.
The CIMEA Statement of Comparability will be uploaded to the digital "Wallet" of qualifications in your DiploMe account through the use of blockchain, thereby making this digital document transparent, transferable, certified and unchangeable.