A Mutual Recognition Agreement between the UK and Chile is now in operation, having formally come into effect in Chile in April 2018, UK NARIC has confirmed.

The MRA of qualifications and degrees aims to develop “relations between the peoples of the two countries” and to promote cooperation ”in education and mobility”.

“The MRA provided a good model for other Latin American agreements because it was the first to take a more ‘person-centred’ approach”

The agreement sets out reciprocity in bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in cases concerning Chilean institutions and programs accredited by the Chilean National Accreditation Commission and recognized UK institutions.

The Chilean MRA is one of a number of recent similar agreements signed between the UK and Latin American countries.

It was also the first to be initiated in Latin America, with conversations that began in 2012 reaching agreement in 2016.

As the legal ratification process in Chile has since concluded, UK NARIC has confirmed that the MRA is now formally in operation.

UK NARIC head of stakeholder management Tim Buttress told The PIE that further agreements with Colombia and Mexico have also been signed, and work is on-going with Brazil, Peru, and Argentina.

Buttress added that MRAs have a particular value when international students come to study in the UK, as the UK qualification they achieve will be recognized when they return home.

“The UK-Chile MRA provided such a good model for other Latin American agreements because it was the first MRA to take a more ‘person-centred’ approach,” explained Buttress.

He said that it was also a very “holistic, comprehensive approach”.

“Previous MRAs had been very ‘document-centred’, looking at how a particular degree certificate compared to another degree certificate, qualification by qualification.”

He explained that in Chile, as in other Latin American countries, a degree can also qualify the holder to work in a profession.

“For this reason,” Buttress added, “the agreement articulates the process of professional recognition, but does not infringe upon the rights of professional bodies.”