The improvement plan for the Foreign Qualifications Recognition and Equivalence Program reveals historic figures on the issuance of reports

Since 2023, the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) has been carrying out a thorough transformation of the Program for the Recognition and Equivalence of Foreign Qualifications (HETE Program). With the arrival of the new management team and following an in-depth analysis of the state of the program, it was concluded that a series of measures needed to be implemented to improve its functioning and strengthen transparency and confidence in it.

Since then, ANECA has embarked on a process of reinforcement and updating aimed at speeding up resolution times and ensuring that its reports have the academic rigor and predictability that are essential to the Agency's work.

These efforts have quickly borne fruit: there has been a remarkable increase in the number of reports issued and, for the first time, ANECA has no delays in the evaluation process for the files it receives.

ANECA's role in the process of recognition and declaration of equivalence of foreign qualifications

The Agency's functions in this area, within the legal framework established by Royal Decree 889/2022, consist, on the one hand, of preparing individual reports, at the request of the Technical Analysis Committee for Recognition and Equivalence (CATHYDE) of the General Secretariat of Universities, “on the academic or professional knowledge and skills” of foreign degrees that are intended to be equated with Spanish degrees.

In addition, ANECA has the power to propose general measures, for approval by CATHYDE, which allow uniform criteria to be applied to groups of similar files from the same university in the same country. On the other hand, ANECA has no powers in the administrative procedure and therefore cannot intervene in it.

Analysis and improvement of the program's limitations

When the current management team took over the program in 2023, it found that it presented a number of difficulties, including a lack of human and material resources, evaluation criteria that were not public, and limits on the possibility of hiring external specialists imposed by ministerial regulations. Despite the commitment of the staff involved, this situation made it difficult to issue reports in a timely manner and, on occasions, hindered the transparency of the process.

Key measures for improvement 

In the period 2023-2025, ANECA has promoted a comprehensive plan that, among other improvements, includes the following measures:

• Strengthening human resources: the internal team has quadrupled in size, thanks to internal reorganization and new hires through public job offers. In addition, regulatory limits affecting external specialists have been removed, allowing the number of evaluators to be adapted to actual demand.
• Transparency and public criteria: all information related to the process, such as the evaluators, the new general measures proposed (12 in total), and, most importantly, the evaluation criteria applicable in each case, is made available through the Agency's various communication channels. With regard to approvals, the evaluation criteria for each profession have been published, integrating the applicable national and international regulations and providing checklists to facilitate the work of evaluators and applicants.
• Systemic approach: instead of repeatedly analyzing individual files from the same university and curriculum, work is being done to establish general measures that affect homogeneous sets of files, whose reports must be equally homogeneous. Thus, in countries where education leading to a certain profession is regulated, it is possible to analyze whether the national regulations of that country imply that the degree is compatible (or partially compatible) with Spanish criteria and, therefore, that the records from that country and degree can be reported as a group. During this period, ANECA has proposed a total of 12 general measures of varying scope: eight for the homologation procedure, three for the equivalence procedure, and one that affects both procedures. These measures have significantly streamlined the Ministry's resolution of files. ANECA is currently continuing to work on the development of new measures.
• Organization and consistency: to make the reports more robust, panels have been created for each profession and an Approval and Equivalence Commission has been set up, in which all of them are represented. This ensures the consistency of the reports and allows for a harmonized interpretation of the criteria.

Visible results

Thanks to these improvements, between 2023 and 2025 ANECA issued the highest number of reports to date compared to the previous period: 24,300 reports, exceeding even the volume of applications received (21,562). In addition, the number of pending files has been significantly reduced and, for the first time, ANECA has no delays in the evaluation process of files received.

Commitment to citizens

ANECA is aware of the impact this process has on the professional and personal lives of those who need to have their qualifications recognized. It will therefore continue to work to ensure academic rigor, predictability, agility, and transparency in the evaluation process.