Certified Copies and Translations of Educational Documents
Certified Copies
In case you are requested to send any documents by post after receiving your conditional acceptance, you need to make sure you are sending certified copies of your educational documents.
Educational documents (i.e. Bachelor’s degree certificate and transcripts of records) delivered by mail to Tallinn University need to be officially certified copies of the original documents. This means that the copies must be stamped and signed by the issuing institution or a notary public. A notary public is a public officer who attests or certifies writings to make them authentic. The purpose of having a document certified by a notary public is to ensure the authenticity of the signatures that appear on the document. The copies must be made of the original official documents.
The authenticity of an official copy of a document can be attested in the following ways*:
- the awarding educational institution certifies the copy
- the copy of the document is legalised
- a notary public certifies the copy.
* In cases where the document is required to be sent directly to Tallinn University by the awarding institution, only certification by the awarding educational institution will be accepted. Legalised and notarised copies sent by the applicant will not be accepted.
Other copies will not be recognised as officially certified copies. For example, a regular photocopy or a copy certified by two persons are not sufficient to constitute certification.
This is a general overview of steps that must be completed. Methods may be slightly different from country to country:
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Review the document to make sure that it is an original. The stamps and signatures in the original document must in all cases be original and the copy must include all the pages belonging to the original document.
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Take the copies and the original documents to the issuing institution or a notary public, so that they can attest that the copies are made of the original documents. They will need to stamp and sign the copies in order to confirm this. (Taking copies of the original documents may also be part of their service, you can check this beforehand).
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Mail the officially certified copies of the documents bearing original attestation stamps and signatures to Tallinn University. Please note that copies of certified copies will not be accepted.
If the copy contains several pages, each page must be stamped and signed by the certifying institution or officer, unless the pages are bound together in such a way (e.g. by a seal) that individual pages cannot be detached from each other. If the pages of the copy are loose or can be detached from each other (i.e. are stapled together using a regular stapler), each page must be stamped and signed by the certifying institution or officer. The date and the original signature, printed name and stamp of the certifying officer must be indicated clearly.
When a document goes through the process of authentication, Tallinn University may verify that the certifying institution or officer who made the copy is a genuine institution or officer. Therefore, assume that all certified copies you make will be required to sustain a thorough inspection by the International Admissions Office.
Certified Translations of Documents
If your educational documents are not in English, you need to have them translated. The following rules apply:
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your documents must be translated by a sworn translator or by the institution that awarded the document;
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documents must be translated into English or Estonian - documents in other languages are not accepted.
Please note that all the required documents need to be fully in English or Estonian, e.g. it is not acceptable if only the degree title ('Bachelor of Arts') or the degree certificate are in English.