Jucilene Escreveu:"...
Olá outra vez,
Já liguei para a univesidade que poderia reconhecer meu diploma, eles disseram que não fazem a transformção de escala. Mandei um email para o FCT para ver o que eles orientam.
De qualquer forma estou tentando me contactar com a universidade brasileira para saber se eles dão uma declaração explicando a escala e a minha média final.
Obrigada pela ajuda."
If Jucilene does not understand English then somebody please translate this for her because it is very important.
Most of the marks available for the "Mérito do Candidato" are not for the secondary degree, so the hassle of paying for all of the documentation for the secondary degree might not be worthwhile.
I have foreign degrees. FCT pretended that my primary degree was worth much less than it really is. So I paid for a document with a conversion of the value of the primary degree into the Portuguese scale of from 0 to 20. I paid the University of Coimbra for this document and it cost me 140 Euro. It would be possible to pay a different Portuguese university instead. A university can perform such a conversion according to Decreto-Lei n.º 283/83 de 21 de Junho.
After that FCT stopped pretending that my primary degree was very much worse than it really is, but FCT did not undo its rejection of me for the first scholarship application (even though the supposedly low value of my primary degree was the only excuse used to reject the first application).
FCT does not always insist that applicants pay for conversions.
Before I paid a university for a conversion, I requested help from the Portuguese National Academic Recognition Information Center (NARIC) in the matter. Instead, the NARIC tricked me and conned me into paying for help which it never provided. I later paid a less dubious entity (the University of Coimbra) for what it called "reconhecimento" (recognition) (conversion) of a less inaccurate classification of a foreign degree. This later recognition has been of more use.
I demanded a refund from the Portuguese NARIC, but it was so evil as to laugh at me. In 2011 I still do not have the scholarship and I struggle to pay university fees; food bills; and rent for a home: I struggle to stay alive. Something which the Portuguese NARIC is a part of (the Portuguese General Directorate for Higher Education, Direcção Geral do Ensino Superior, DGES) threatened to sue me but it has not managed to sue me.
Ana Isabel Mateus of DGES Escreveu:"Dear Mr. Nicholas Gloucester,
In regard to your emails of 12th January and 4th May we would like to inform you of the following:
In August 2009 you telephoned this Directorate General requesting information about the motives of the refusal of your application for a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)."
I actually originally telephoned DGES re the refusal by FCT in February 2009. The NARIC of DGES did not bother to act on that telephone call, and I telephoned again in July 2009 and August 2009.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" We informed you that FCT is an independent government body and therefore this Directorate-General could not interfere in the decisions made by it."
No, on the contrary, on August 5th, 2009 I asked DGES how to force FCT to obey a law by recognising a foreign degree and DGES said that FCT must obey the law. DGES did not even try to compel FCT to act legally. On August 5th, 2009 DGES said: "FCT cannot recognise your diploma".
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" However, and given that you presented an Irish degree, this Directorate-General could recognise it according to the Licenciado Portuguese degree, as foreseen by Decree-Law nr. 341/2007, 12th October, and this might help your application."
Neither DGES nor its NARIC provided me with recognition of the value of the Irish degree, which was the only lame excuse which FCT used at the time.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" We also explained that we could not convert your final mark according to the Portuguese system given that the technical rules to do so have not yet been established for the Republic of Ireland."
DGES has first claimed this after I had paid. DGES also claimed that this problem would not last very long. On August 5th, 2009 DGES said that the recognition would take a maximum of 30 days. On October 23rd, 2009 DGES said that I will have the recognition "next week". On Friday November 13th, 2009 DGES said that the recognition would be ready the next week after then. DGES never gave me the recognition. On December 9th, 2009 DGES said it would telephone me in January 2010 re giving me the recognition, but DGES did not contact me until April 20th, 2011 (still without the recognition) when threatening to sue me.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:"According to the information we previously provided, on the 4th of September 2009 you requested the recognition of your diploma at this Directorate-General and sent by post the original of your bachelor degree, the statement of examination results and four other documents issued by the Dublin City University concerning your performance as a student.
This Directorate-General recognised the Bachelor Irish degree to the Licenciado Portuguese degree ..."
Portuguese degrees have classifications. Irish degrees have classifications. You did not send me a Portuguese classification.
What was the purpose of sending to DGES "examination results and ... other documents issued by the Dublin City University concerning (...my) performance as a student"? I expected a Portuguese classification. I sent them accompanied by the letter of September 3rd, 2009 which contained:
Nicholas Collin Paul de Gloucester Escreveu:"...
Direcção Geral do Ensino Superior,
NARIC (National Academic Recognition Information Center),
Av. Duque d’ Ávila, 137,
1069 016 Lisboa.
Dear Madam,
Further to my as yet numerous not completely answered emails and telephone calls to you, I apply for recognition of my primary degree from a legally competent body, namely the National Academic Recognition Information Center of the General Directorate of Higher Education.
...
... Hugo Sena advised me on August 5th, 2009 that the National Academic Recognition Information Center would stamp the rear of the parchment, thereby denoting your official recognition thereof. Therefore, please let me stress that it is easy to make a mistake so please be very careful instead of damaging the parchment with a misinterpretation. ...
As already asked by email and by phone and as yet still unanswered, how can I force FCT (the Foundation for Science and Technology) to replace its illegal misinterpretation of my primary degree with your official recognition? This is extremely important and I can not wait forever. As a result of misconduct by the Foundation for Science and Technology, I paid the doctoral fees for the academic year 2008-2009: 3026.65 Euro and I have been deprived of the Social Security contributions of a doctoral scholarship. I understandably want to be reimbursed the 3026.65 Euro and I want the missing Social Security contributions.
...
I look forward to your help with this difficult situation. As I mentioned in my email entitled "RE: FCT had no legal basis to misinterpret a foreign degree" timestamped "Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:36:53 +0000 (UTC)" to Dr. Maria Manuela Couto Paiva, I do not know how to apply for recognition of my primary degree. This is still the case. I know that I am supposed to pay you 25 Euro, but I still have not been told how to pay this fee."
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:"On the 12th of January 2011, you sent an email requesting the recognition of your diploma"
I still have not received the owed recognition from DGES.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:"saying that you paid for it,"
I did pay for it.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" and accusing this Directorate-General of not recognising it. In the same email you still insist that this Directorate General did nothing regarding the acceptance of your application for an FCT scholarship,"
DGES did nothing about my case and I do not have a scholarship.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" even though we had already explained that this Directorate-General is not competent to do so, given that is an independent and internal procedure that only involves the Foundation."
These clauses from DGES contradict what DGES had claimed before I had paid. What was the purpose of paying DGES?
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:"On the morning of the 2nd of March 2011, we received a telephone call from you requesting, once again, the recognition of your diploma, even though we had already sent it in November of 2009. When questioned if you received the registered diploma by post you finally confirmed that you had received it diploma dully recognized and that the problem now was the conversion of your final mark, which we had also already explained that we could not do"
The final mark is a significant part of recognition.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" Nonetheless we explained again that this Directorate General could not convert your final grade because the technical rules to proceed to the conversation of final marks from Ireland were not yet officially defined by the competent Commission for the Recognition of Foreign Diplomas. Given this, we explained that in case you need a final mark according to the Portuguese grading system you need to apply for an equivalence directly to a Portuguese higher education institution for a scientific re-evaluation of the work carried out during your degree in order to obtain a casuistic assessment of its merit and also a final mark.
In the same phone call you accused us of never giving you the necessary information about the conversion of your final mark, and because of this you demanded a refund of the fees that you paid for the recognition of your diploma (€25). In that phone we tried to explain that this is our procedure to all the requests we receive, and that we accordingly inform every one of the competences of this Directorate General and the higher education institutions regarding all procedures for academic recognition."
DGES did not bother to inform me of any shortcomings of DGES before it was too late. However, DGES itself hypocritically insists on unequivocal candor from graduates submitting documents for recognition.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" Regardless of this, you still insisted on receiving a refund of the fees in such a tone that made it impossible to continue the conversation, and when we tried to transfer the call to the head of office you had hung up."
I insisted on a refund so Hugo Alexandre Sena laughed at me. I remarked that I need this money to eat, but from then on from the other end of the telephone I could hear only silence. If Hugo Alexandre Sena had been trying to transfer the call to someone else during the long silence, I had been uninformed of this and hence unaware of this and this would be unfortunate.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:"On the 4th of March 2011 you sent us another email presenting very serious accusations,"
True accusations.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" that we consider to have no proof whatsoever according to the facts here presented"
I do not know whether or not the Portuguese NARIC has also tricked Ana Isabel Mateus.
Ana Isabel Mateus Escreveu:" We must therefore stress that this Directorate-General has already recognized your diploma on the28th of October 2009, and has sent it by post to the address that you provided. In case you need a final mark according to the Portuguese grading scale you need to apply for an equivalence directly to a Portuguese higher education institution. We also inform you that FCT is an independent government body and this Directorate General cannot interfere in the decisions made by it.
In case you insist on making accusations as you have made previously, and given the seriousness of their content we will have to proceed with the adequate legal measures to ensure that the good name and competence of our professionals, as well as of this Directorate-General, are duly maintained.
Best regards,
Ana Mateus
Head of Unit"
NARIC did not succeed in trying to sue me.
