Overseas qualifications and lost certificates: a UK guide for refugees

If you studied before coming to the UK, those years still count. Most young refugees and asylum seekers can get a school, college or university qualification from home compared with the UK system through UK ENIC’s Statement of Comparability, which costs £69.60 and can take 15 working days. If certificates were lost or cannot safely be obtained, colleges and universities can usually accept other evidence instead: transcripts, references, interviews and placement tests. The key step is to speak to the admissions team before you apply.

That is the short answer. The longer one matters, because the process is not one single “recognition” decision. It is a chain of separate judgements made by different people: an agency that compares levels, an admissions team that decides whether you meet a course’s requirements, and sometimes a test of your English. Each link can be strengthened, and a missing document at one point does not have to end the whole chain.

This guide is written for young people aged 16 to 22 and for the teachers, social workers, caseworkers and volunteers who support them. It covers what a Statement of Comparability is and what it costs, what UK ENIC offers people in a refugee-like situation, how admissions teams actually use comparisons, what to do when documents are missing, the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees and UNESCO’s Global Convention, English language requirements, and a practical plan. Every fee and figure was checked against the original source in September 2026.

What does “recognition” mean in the UK?

It helps to start with what does not exist. There is no single office in the UK that stamps an overseas school-leaving certificate as “equal to A levels” and binds every college and university to that decision. Instead, each institution sets its own entry requirements and decides for itself whether your qualifications meet them.

What does exist is an expert reference point. UK ENIC is the UK’s national agency for recognising and comparing international qualifications and skills. GOV.UK’s page on what qualification levels mean directs people who want to compare a non-UK qualification with a UK one to UK ENIC, and notes that there is a fee.

UK ENIC is careful about the status of what it produces. Its page on how it checks qualifications says its statements are not legal documents and should be treated as guidance, with the final decision on study or employment made by the institution or employer. When it evaluates a qualification it looks at the status of the qualification and awarding body, the level in the home education system, course structure, content and learning outcomes, how the course was assessed, and progression routes, and it maps the result onto the UK using its own Band Framework.

For most young people reading this, the level that matters most is Level 3. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, A levels, the Access to Higher Education Diploma, T Levels and Level 3 diplomas all sit at that level, and it is the usual threshold for starting an undergraduate degree. The question an admissions tutor is really asking about your certificate from home is: does it reach Level 3, and in the right subjects?

Comparisons also change as education systems change. In July 2026, for example, UK ENIC announced that Iran’s Certificate of Completion of Upper Secondary Education, when awarded in the theoretical stream from 2019 onwards, is now comparable to A level and Scottish Advanced Higher. A comparison you read about five years ago may no longer be the current one.

What is a UK ENIC Statement of Comparability?

A Statement of Comparability is a certificate showing how your international qualifications compare to the UK education systems. It includes your UK ENIC reference number, the name, country, year and awarding school of each qualification, and how each compares to the UK education systems. It is intended for people applying for jobs, study or professional registration in the UK.

It is just as important to know what it does not do. UK ENIC states that the statement does not comment on grades, grade comparisons, specific subjects or English proficiency. It tells an admissions team the level of your qualification. It does not tell them whether you got top marks in chemistry, and it is not evidence of your English.

What you need to apply

UK ENIC’s documents page asks for final certificates for up to four completed qualifications, official transcripts showing all subjects and grades signed and dated by the awarding institution, certified translations where documents are not in English, proof of identity, and evidence of any name change. It recommends including your high school qualification plus up to three others, and only accepts documents from the awarding institution itself. You upload clear colour photographs, with all four corners visible.

UK ENIC’s main Statement of Comparability page is also clear that it can do more than the standard case. It says it can provide comparisons and credit information for some incomplete or partially documented qualifications.

What it costs and how long it takes

These are the prices on UK ENIC’s own pages in September 2026. Each is exactly 20% above the matching charge in the 2025 charges regulations (for example, £58 becomes £69.60), which is consistent with VAT being added.

Three details are easy to miss. First, the clock starts only once UK ENIC has all the documents and full payment, and the Fast Track timeframe can restart if they need more information. Second, you must choose the speed when you apply; you cannot upgrade later. Third, the Translation Waiver Service only covers the languages listed above. Documents in languages not on those lists, such as Dari, Pashto, Farsi, Kurdish or Tigrinya, need certified translations from a professional translator, which is a separate cost.

Refunds are only available if you cancel before the evaluation team starts checking your qualifications, so it is worth being sure you need a statement before you pay.

Does UK ENIC offer anything specific for refugees?

Yes, though most of it is not advertised on the pages an individual applicant reads first.

UK ENIC’s entry on the ENIC-NARIC network’s UK page says it has developed services to support refugees and people in refugee-like situations, treating their applications with additional discretion. That support can include working with incomplete documentation, providing contextual information where a comparison to a UK qualification is not possible, working without translations when possible, and telephone interviews with applicants who have no documents. It has a dedicated inbox for refugees and asylum seekers, refugee@ecctis.com, and says it also supports charities and local councils who work with refugees. In its own news pages it acknowledges that refugees’ certificates and transcripts may be incomplete or missing entirely.

There is also a cheaper route that runs through organisations rather than individuals. The Recognition of Overseas Qualifications (Charges) (England and Wales and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2025, which came into force on 28 March 2025, set out a refugee bundle service: statements of comparability sold in batches to “refugee organisations”, each processed on an expedited basis. The regulations define a refugee organisation broadly, as any organisation that provides help or information to refugees or people seeking refugee status as part of its service. Scotland has its own parallel charges regulations.

Bundles of statements: refugee organisations pay far less

Charges for bundles of Statements of Comparability as set in the 2025 charges regulations

• Refugee bundle service
• Standard bundle service

• 5 statements£128vs £412
• 10 statements£256vs £773
• 20 statements£513vs £1,442
• 30 statements£769vs £2,009
• 50 statements£1,281vs £3,091

Show the data as a table

Bundles of statements: refugee organisations pay far less

Category	Refugee bundle service	Standard bundle service
5 statements	£128	£412
10 statements	£256	£773
20 statements	£513	£1,442
30 statements	£769	£2,009
50 statements	£1,281	£3,091

What this means in practice: a young person does not have to pay the full individual price alone. A refugee charity, a college, a leaving care team or a local authority service may already hold, or be able to buy, statements through UK ENIC. If you support young people and you regularly see qualifications from abroad, it is worth asking UK ENIC whether your organisation qualifies.

How do colleges and universities use comparisons?

Admissions teams handle international qualifications every day, and many do not need you to supply a statement at all.

UK ENIC’s membership packages are open to higher education institutions, further education colleges, employers, professional bodies, awarding organisations and migrant advisory organisations. A member institution can look up a qualification in UK ENIC’s databases or ask its experts directly. UCAS also publishes Qualification Information Profiles, which some universities consult when comparing qualification levels.

The University of Cambridge’s guidance for Foundation Year applicants with refugee or asylum-seeking status, published in July 2026 for 2027 entry, is a clear example of how this works. The programme asks for 120 UCAS Tariff points. Cambridge explains that few overseas qualifications carry a Tariff value, but that it may still accept one without it, provided it is equivalent to A levels. It says it would consult UCAS’s Qualification Information Profiles, invites applicants to email the qualification’s full title, country and grades so it can research the equivalence, and adds that you may need a Statement of Comparability from UK ENIC. In other words: contact the university first, and let it tell you whether a statement is needed.

Further education colleges can work differently. For a 16 to 19 year old joining a college, the question is often which course and level to start on. A certificate comparison can help, so ask the college how it places students who studied abroad and whether it uses its own English and maths assessments alongside whatever documents a student has. If English is the main barrier, our guide to ESOL for young refugees aged 16 to 19 explains how those courses fit in.

UCAS’s advice to displaced students is straightforward. Its displaced students page says that if you cannot provide evidence of the qualifications you achieved, or you left a course before completing it, you should talk to the university or college before applying. It notes they will tell you whether you need extra exams or an access course, and may suggest a foundation year. Our guide to Access to HE Diplomas and foundation years covers those routes in detail.

What if your certificates are lost or cannot be obtained?

UK ENIC notes that documents such as certificates and transcripts held by refugees may be incomplete, or missing entirely. Certificates may have been left behind, destroyed, or never issued because schooling was interrupted. Sometimes the school no longer exists. Sometimes asking for records would mean contacting the very authorities a family fled.

Nobody should be expected to put themselves or their family at risk to obtain a transcript. If that is the situation, say so to the admissions team; you do not need to give every detail, only enough for them to understand why a document is unavailable.

The good news is that the recognition sector expects this. UK ENIC’s own top tips for dealing with refugee applications, published in August 2026, advise admitting institutions to be flexible and adjust their expectations about documents, and to explore alternatives. The approaches it recommends include:

• Interviews and questionnaires about subjects studied, the school or course provider and graduation dates, by phone, video or in person.
• Tests of the knowledge and skills most fundamental to the course, which can be practical, written or oral.
• Alternative documents, such as an earlier school award showing language, maths or science ability, schoolwork, work experience records or published research — and the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees, if the applicant has one.
• Online verification platforms, graduate lists and professional registers that can confirm an award without contacting authorities in the home country.
• Clear internal policies, so every admissions officer handles these cases fairly and consistently.

Universities are putting this into their own policies. The University of St Andrews, for example, pledges a flexible approach to agreeing a suitable alternative when an applicant cannot provide evidence because of their circumstances, and may ask for a letter from a guidance teacher or another professional working with the applicant.

Documents you have: what to do next

Using the UCAS application to explain

For university applications, UCAS’s adviser guidance on supporting displaced students suggests using three parts of the form. The reference can flag that a student is unable to provide proof of qualifications they achieved. The extenuating circumstances section can explain challenges such as missed schooling. And the personal statement can set out previous study, particularly when it cannot be proved or was not completed. UCAS also publishes a personal statement guide written with Student Action for Refugees for displaced applicants.

UCAS’s displaced students page adds that you can enter a school that is not on its list as free text, with its address, and then add the qualifications you took there. Writing down the exact name of your school, the years you attended and the subjects you studied is worth doing today, while you still remember them clearly.

The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees: does it work in the UK?

The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR) is a Council of Europe project, run with UNHCR and national recognition centres since 2017. It was designed for exactly the situation described above: people whose qualifications cannot be fully documented.

The EQPR is a standardised document that explains the qualifications a refugee is likely to have, based on the evidence available. It summarises the highest qualification achieved, the subject, relevant work experience and language proficiency. The Council of Europe is explicit that it is not a formal recognition decision; it is credible information that an employer, college or university can take into account.

According to the Council of Europe’s EQPR leaflet:

• Who can apply: people with refugee status, people with asylum seeker status, and people with temporary protection.
• Cost: the evaluation is provided free of charge.
• How: you create an account on the EQPR online platform, complete a questionnaire and upload documents. If you are selected, you have a structured interview of about 45 minutes with trained credential evaluators, in your native language or the language you were taught in.
• What is assessed: higher education, technical and vocational education and training, and upper secondary education.

The UK is part of it. According to UNHCR, the United Kingdom was one of the original partners, with Greece, Italy and Norway, and the Council of Europe lists the UK’s national recognition centre among the project’s partners. The Council of Europe’s 2025 survey of EQPR holders lists the United Kingdom among 24 active partners in 2025.

But it would be misleading to present the EQPR as a routine UK service. It is selective, and it is small: the Council of Europe’s survey was sent to 1,201 people who had received the passport between 2017 and the end of 2024. The same survey shows where the holders who answered were living when they were interviewed.

Where EQPR holders were interviewed, 2017–2024

Country where the refugee took part in the interview, as reported by 327 survey respondents

• Italy145 interviews
• France76 interviews
• Greece74 interviews
• Germany10 interviews
• Netherlands4 interviews
• Other countries (including Spain, Cyprus and Poland)18 interviews

Show the data as a table

Where EQPR holders were interviewed, 2017–2024

Category	Value
Italy	145 interviews
France	76 interviews
Greece	74 interviews
Germany	10 interviews
Netherlands	4 interviews
Other countries (including Spain, Cyprus and Poland)	18 interviews

The UK does not appear among the interview locations the survey names. That does not mean a young person in the UK cannot apply; the application is online and 69% of the interviews in the survey were held remotely. It does mean that, based on the published evidence, the EQPR has mainly served refugees living elsewhere in Europe, and that UK admissions staff may not have seen one before.

Our practical advice: if your documents are missing, applying for an EQPR costs nothing and may produce useful evidence. Apply alongside the other routes in this guide, not instead of them, and be ready to explain to an admissions team what the document is.

What does UNESCO’s Global Convention change?

The Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education was adopted by UNESCO in November 2019 and entered into force on 5 March 2023. It is the first United Nations treaty dedicated to higher education. UNESCO reports that 42 states had ratified it by July 2026, and that it promotes the recognition of refugees’ qualifications even where documentary evidence is lacking.

The UK is a State Party. UNESCO’s treaty record also lists a UK notification received on 30 March 2022 extending the convention to the Isle of Man. The convention sets out a right to have qualifications assessed, through procedures that are transparent, fair, timely and non-discriminatory.

It builds on an older European treaty, the Lisbon Recognition Convention, which the UK also takes part in. Article VII of the Lisbon Convention already asks each party to take reasonable steps to assess fairly and quickly whether refugees meet the requirements for access to higher education, even when their qualifications cannot be proven through documents.

What happens next is being worked out now. In an August 2026 article, UK ENIC explained that it is working with the Department for Education as part of the convention’s Bureau, whose 2025–27 workplan includes a subsidiary text on recognising qualifications held by refugees and displaced persons.

For an individual applicant, the honest summary is this: the convention does not create a new service you can apply to, and it does not oblige any particular college to admit you. What it does is set out, in an international treaty the UK has ratified, the principle that missing documents should not automatically mean no assessment. That is a useful sentence to have in your pocket when you ask an admissions team what alternatives they accept.

Comparing the recognition routes

English language requirements: IELTS and the alternatives

A Statement of Comparability says nothing about your English, so language is a separate question with its own evidence.

UCAS says that to study at undergraduate level you usually need GCSE English Language at grade 4 or above, or an alternative English language qualification, and that the university or college will tell you what it accepts. Refugee Education UK lists IELTS Academic and TOEFL iBT as common tests, and notes that some universities accept alternative evidence, such as certain UK school or college qualifications, internal English tests, or evidence of previous study in English.

A few specifics worth knowing:

• Free IELTS for some refugees. In November 2024 the IELTS partners — the British Council, IDP IELTS and Cambridge University Press & Assessment — announced free IELTS tests for refugees in partnership with UNHCR, which identifies the people who receive them. The announcement does not set out how someone in the UK can be put forward, so ask a refugee support organisation before assuming it applies to you.
• University help with test costs. For 2026 entry, the University of Reading said it might be able to give sanctuary scholarship applicants who cannot afford a test free access to a Duolingo English Test, subject to a limited number available.
• Assessment during admissions. Cambridge’s Foundation Year guidance says it assesses applicants’ English throughout the admissions process, particularly in the admissions assessment and interview, alongside its published English requirements.
• UCAS’s advice to universities. UCAS’s good practice briefing for providers recommends ensuring that any English language test requirement does not become a financial barrier for refugees and asylum seekers.

UK ENIC’s documents page also mentions Functional Skills Level 2 English, which it describes as similar in level to a GCSE and an academic qualification rather than a test of English proficiency. Colleges often offer it, and it can be a useful stepping stone.

Two cautions. Test requirements can differ by course, not just by university, and many institutions only accept recent results, so check both before booking. And reaching the minimum score is not the only route: Refugee Education UK suggests that students who find paying for a test difficult ask universities about fee waivers or lower-cost options, or take English courses at college to build up to the required level.

A step-by-step plan

Here is the order we suggest, whether you are a student doing this yourself or someone supporting a young person.

1. Write your education history now. Every school, college or university, with the town, years attended, subjects, exams taken and results, as best you remember them. Date it and keep a copy.
2. Gather what exists. Collect every document, photo, scan, email attachment and old school report. Keep originals safe and make clear copies.
3. Decide what you are applying for. A college course, an access course, a foundation year or a degree each needs different evidence. Pick two or three named courses.
4. Contact the admissions team before applying. Explain what you have and what is missing. Ask whether they need a UK ENIC statement, whether they accept alternatives, and how they assess English.
5. Ask for help with the cost. Before paying for a statement, ask your college, caseworker, local authority or a refugee charity whether they can order one through UK ENIC.
6. If documents are missing, get advice. Email refugee@ecctis.com, consider an EQPR application, and ask a teacher, mentor or caseworker to write a supporting letter.
7. Sort out English evidence early. Find out which tests or qualifications your chosen courses accept, and whether any free or supported testing is available.
8. Use the application to explain. Ask your referee to mention missing documents, use the extenuating circumstances section, and describe your earlier study in your personal statement.
9. Check fee status separately. Recognition of qualifications and fee status are different questions. Read our home fees and student finance guide and look at sanctuary scholarships if you are still waiting for an asylum decision.

Evidence checklist

Three illustrative situations

These scenarios are illustrative composites. They do not describe any real person.

A student with full documents from Syria

A 17-year-old arrives with her Syrian secondary school certificate and transcript, both in Arabic. She wants to study engineering. Her college tutor emails two universities, and one confirms it can assess the certificate itself; the other asks for a UK ENIC statement. Because Arabic is covered by the Translation Waiver Service at no extra charge, the statement costs £69.60. Her tutor asks the college’s student services team whether they can pay for it, and they agree. The university also wants to see her grades in maths and physics, so she keeps the transcript ready alongside the statement. Her English evidence is a separate question, and she books a test only after checking what the course accepts.

A student from Afghanistan with no papers

A 16-year-old left Afghanistan without any documents. He studied to the equivalent of Year 11 and remembers his school, subjects and teachers clearly. Contacting his old school is not safe. His caseworker helps him write a dated education history and emails UK ENIC’s refugee inbox for advice. His college places him using its own English and maths assessments, and he begins working towards GCSE-level qualifications. He applies for an EQPR, knowing it may take time and is not guaranteed. When he later applies to an access course, his tutor’s reference explains his missing documents and his personal statement describes his earlier study.

A student whose schooling was interrupted in Eritrea

An 18-year-old completed part of her upper secondary education before it was interrupted. She has one photo of an earlier school certificate on an old phone. She asks UK ENIC whether it can provide credit information for incomplete study, and contacts a university’s admissions team, which suggests a foundation year rather than direct entry. Her certificate photo, a letter from her mentor and a placement test together give the university enough to make her an offer. Her documents in Tigrinya are not covered by the Translation Waiver Service, so the charity supporting her helps arrange a certified translation of the one certificate she has.

Where Bridging the Future fits

We are not a recognition body, and we cannot assess or compare qualifications. What we can do is help with the parts of this process that depend on having someone to ask.

Our online mentoring programme, running since 2022, has supported 32 students through more than 250 hours of volunteer mentoring. It runs weekly from October to March, one to one or in small groups, and it covers exactly the tasks this guide describes: writing personal statements, preparing university applications, practising interviews and building academic English. It starts again in October 2026.

Our free two-week STEM and English summer school at UCL’s Department of Physics & Astronomy gives 30 young people a year the experience of learning inside a university, with travel, food and materials covered. In 2025 we received 315 applications for those 30 places. Summer School 2026 has finished, and applications for Summer School 2027 will be announced on our apply page. A student with missing documents can still build new, recent evidence of what they can do, and that matters to admissions teams. If you want to understand why so many young people arrive at exactly the age when documents matter most, our analysis of the GCSE vacuum explains it.

If you have been through a UK university application yourself, you already know most of what a young person in this situation needs to hear. You can volunteer with us.

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Figures and fees compiled in September 2026 from the sources listed below. UK ENIC prices are as shown on its website; charges quoted from the 2025 regulations are the amounts set in the regulations, which UK ENIC’s prices exceed by 20%. Rules and figures change — if you spot something out of date, please tell us.

Keep reading

• Home fees and student finance for refugees and asylum seekers — the separate question of what you will pay, and who qualifies for support.
• Access to HE Diplomas and foundation years — the routes into university when your qualifications do not meet entry requirements.
• Sanctuary scholarships in the UK — who they are for, what they cover and how to apply.
• Supporting a young refugee into education — a practical guide for teachers, social workers and volunteers.