Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has implemented a number of new requirements for the attestation of educational documents, the Philippine embassy in Doha told members of the Filipino community in Qatar.
In a circular issued by the embassy recently, Philippine ambassador Wilfredo Santos said MoFA’s Consular Department is requiring all university certificate holders issued outside Qatar to provide original mark sheets (transcript of records or TOR) and certification from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the Philippines from June 1.
MoFA also wants some information to be included in these documents such as studying system and attendance (admission, part time admission, enrolment and distance); study and examination headquarters, (the study and examination headquarters in the Philippines are usually in the schools); degree attained by the student (diploma, bachelor, masters, or doctorate); and education programme subject scheduled to attain the certificate (syllabus or refer to the actual content of the TOR).
Additional details are also needed such as the actual time that the student spent to attain the certificate (starting date and completion date of study); the type of educational institute (governmental or private); and academic accreditation of the educational institute by the official authorities on academic accreditation in that country during the student’s study (state the CHED accreditation/permit/license).
“To facilitate the attestation of the above documents at MoFA, they should be attested by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine embassy in Doha or the Qatar embassy in Manila,” Santos noted.
“The higher education certificates - master and doctor of Philosophy through enrolment education will be attested, but the educational certificates by distance will not be attested until the relevant authorities in the State define the requirements and controls for distance learning and guidelines have been circulated,” the envoy stressed.
In February, Filipino engineers and architects in Qatar have also been required to comply with a number of requirements for them to take the qualifying exam and practice their profession legally in the country.
Qatar requires a 12-year basic education, or a total of 16 years of education, for registering professionals such as architects and engineers.