The abbreviation of the foreign degree should be included in the identity card if requested

The Ombudsman dealt with the application of the complainant who obtained a Master of Sciences degree in the United Kingdom in the field of Information and Communication Technology. However, the relevant authority refused to include the abbreviation of the degree (MSc or MSc.) in the complainant’s identity card because it had not been stated by the school in his diploma.

Under the current legislation, an abbreviation of the obtained academic degree cannot be stated in a citizen’s identity card if a foreign university or college does not specify an abbreviation of the relevant academic degree in a diploma it issues. Therefore, the Ombudsman could not help the complainant in the above mentioned case because the authority could not proceed otherwise under the current laws.

The situation is, however, quite absurd. While it is not possible to state in an identity card a common abbreviation of a university degree, at the same time (according to a register maintained by the Ministry of the Interior) people have registered in their identity cards as many as 342 various degrees and abbreviations, which sometimes differ merely in their language versions or, in other cases, in the number of full stops used in the abbreviation (“magister inzynier ogrodnictwa”, “BABA”, “INSINÖÖRI”), all that only because the Universities Act remains silent in this respect.

Based on the Ombudsman’s intervention, the Ministries of the Interior and of Education, Youth and Sports have already pledged to seek a solution together.