Spain's Court of Audit flags "serious deficiencies" in recognition of foreign degrees
Spain's Tribunal de Cuentas (Court of Audit) reports "serious deficiencies" in the recognition of foreign degrees: 30,000 doctors with no competence test and a tsunami of fake credentials.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Spain's Court of Audit detects "serious deficiencies" in the recognition of foreign degrees
Spain's Tribunal de Cuentas (Court of Audit) has issued a damning report on the country's system for recognising foreign degrees, pointing to "serious deficiencies" that compromise the quality of healthcare and legal certainty. The auditing body has focused on the ministry headed by Diana Sarracena, responsible for Universities, and on its handling of the credentials of doctors arriving from outside the EU. Meanwhile, medical associations are demanding a competence test for the 30,000 foreign doctors authorised to practise in recent years, a figure growing without any control.
Foreign doctors without oversight: 30,000 authorised with no competence test
The Asociación de Médicos y Titulados Superiores (Association of Doctors and Graduates) has raised the alarm: nearly 30,000 doctors trained outside the European Union have had their degrees recognised in Spain without any verification that they possess the minimum knowledge required to practise. The most extreme case has been found in Catalonia, where 6,500 South American doctors have been detected practising anyway, without even having finished their degrees or obtained recognition. The situation is even more serious considering that in Brazil, the authorities discovered with alarm that 13,000 students about to graduate in Medicine do not know the minimum needed to practise. The obvious question is: how many of them have made it to Spain?
Government validates Ghana's secondary school certificates for migrants with no Spanish
The recognition policy is not limited to medicine. Sánchez's government has approved the validation of the ESO (Spain's compulsory secondary school certificate) for young people who studied in Ghana or other African countries, even if they do not know Spanish. A decision which, according to sources in the education sector, opens the door to massive fraud and devalues the Spanish education system. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has had to reopen the case of Italian law students whom Spain refuses to validate, exposing a double standard: easy for some, obstacles for others.
"Tsunami of fake degrees" and the Montero case
The controversy has also spilled into politics. The PP (People's Party) has called Finance Minister María Jesús Montero a "candidate of lies" for claiming to be a doctor when, according to the conservatives, she is non-medical staff. One more episode in the "tsunami of fake academic degrees" which, according to Onda Cero, now affects the President of the Senate and the PSOE's deputy organisation secretary. The sense of impunity is growing: if even senior officials are not properly vetted, what can the ordinary citizen expect?
And what about insurers? The insolvency risk and the state pool
The debate goes beyond academia. One analysis points out that if drivers with recognised licences (allegedly without real competence) cause accidents and turn out to be insolvent, the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (the state insurance compensation pool) ends up paying, and that cost is passed on to all premiums. A domino effect that makes insurance more expensive for everyone, while those responsible return to their home countries without being held accountable.
The question no official report answers is why, given this track record, a mandatory competence verification system harmonised with the European Union has not been implemented. Meanwhile, patients, students and policyholders are the ones paying the price.
Related debates in the forum
Spain's Tribunal de Cuentas (Court of Audit) has issued a damning report on the country's system for recognising foreign degrees, pointing to "serious deficiencies" that compromise the quality of healthcare and legal certainty. The auditing body has focused on the ministry headed by Diana Sarracena, responsible for Universities, and on its handling of the credentials of doctors arriving from outside the EU. Meanwhile, medical associations are demanding a competence test for the 30,000 foreign doctors authorised to practise in recent years, a figure growing without any control.
Foreign doctors without oversight: 30,000 authorised with no competence test
The Asociación de Médicos y Titulados Superiores (Association of Doctors and Graduates) has raised the alarm: nearly 30,000 doctors trained outside the European Union have had their degrees recognised in Spain without any verification that they possess the minimum knowledge required to practise. The most extreme case has been found in Catalonia, where 6,500 South American doctors have been detected practising anyway, without even having finished their degrees or obtained recognition. The situation is even more serious considering that in Brazil, the authorities discovered with alarm that 13,000 students about to graduate in Medicine do not know the minimum needed to practise. The obvious question is: how many of them have made it to Spain?
Government validates Ghana's secondary school certificates for migrants with no Spanish
The recognition policy is not limited to medicine. Sánchez's government has approved the validation of the ESO (Spain's compulsory secondary school certificate) for young people who studied in Ghana or other African countries, even if they do not know Spanish. A decision which, according to sources in the education sector, opens the door to massive fraud and devalues the Spanish education system. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has had to reopen the case of Italian law students whom Spain refuses to validate, exposing a double standard: easy for some, obstacles for others.
"Tsunami of fake degrees" and the Montero case
The controversy has also spilled into politics. The PP (People's Party) has called Finance Minister María Jesús Montero a "candidate of lies" for claiming to be a doctor when, according to the conservatives, she is non-medical staff. One more episode in the "tsunami of fake academic degrees" which, according to Onda Cero, now affects the President of the Senate and the PSOE's deputy organisation secretary. The sense of impunity is growing: if even senior officials are not properly vetted, what can the ordinary citizen expect?
And what about insurers? The insolvency risk and the state pool
The debate goes beyond academia. One analysis points out that if drivers with recognised licences (allegedly without real competence) cause accidents and turn out to be insolvent, the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (the state insurance compensation pool) ends up paying, and that cost is passed on to all premiums. A domino effect that makes insurance more expensive for everyone, while those responsible return to their home countries without being held accountable.
The question no official report answers is why, given this track record, a mandatory competence verification system harmonised with the European Union has not been implemented. Meanwhile, patients, students and policyholders are the ones paying the price.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (27 replies).
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