Complaints procedures

Credit transfer decisions

Holders of foreign qualifications may bring educational institutions' credit transfer decisions, i.e. decisions on exemption from parts of a Danish educational programme, before a special appeals committee, the Qualifications Board – Kvalifikationsnævnet. It was established following the amendments to the Act on assessment of foreign qualifications, which entered into force on 1 July 2002 (see Danish legislation on assessment and recognition).

This establishes a right to complain about the content of the credit transfer decision itself, i.e. about how much or how little credit the educational institution is willing to give to the holder of foreign qualifications.

This concerns credit transfer decisions for educational programmes and areas that come under the jurisdiction of the following Ministries: The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Culture. The Qualifications Board does not deal with complaints regarding maritime training programmes under the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs. The educational institutions' decisions on exemption from parts of a maritime training programme may be brought before the Danish Maritime Authority.

The activities of the Qualifications Board comprise matters and issues of content, whereas the pre-existing statutory provisions on the right to complain about legal aspects of decisions made by educational institutions have not been affected by the amendments to the Act.

The complaint must be filed via the educational institution. The decision of the Qualifications Board is the final and conclusive administrative decision. The Qualifications Board is an independent body supported by a secretariat within the Danish Agency for International Education.

By Ministerial Order the Minister of Education has laid down detailed rules on the composition of the Qualifications Board, its activities and its rules of procedure, including deadlines for the Qualifications Board's decisions.

In 2004, the Ministry of Education carried out an evaluation of the Qualifications Board's activities in co-operation with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Ministry of Culture as well as representatives of educational institutions. On the basis of the evaluation and in agreement with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Culture, it was decided to continue the complaints board at least until 2007. In 2007, new legislation confirmed the operation of the complaints board.

Read more about the Qualifications Board.

Assessments by the Danish Agency for International Education

Complaints about assessments made by the Danish Agency for International Education cannot be filed with the Minister of Science or any other authority. But the agency will consider all communications that it receives and may choose to make a new assessment, for example if new information is presented that changes the basis for an assessment.

In addition, there are the same complaints procedures as in other public administration areas: In pursuance of Section 63 of the Constitutional Act of Denmark and the Parliamentary Ombudsman Act, the agency's decisions may be brought before the courts and before the ombudsman.