NARIC Ireland: getting a foreign degree recognised in Ireland, step by step (2026)

UK ENIC and NARIC Ireland compare qualification levels. Neither confirms that a qualification exists. That distinction is not a technicality — it is the space in which Zholia Alemi practised as an NHS psychiatrist for more than twenty years without a medical degree, and it remains open in both jurisdictions as of August 2026.

This matters to anyone hiring overseas-trained staff into regulated roles, because the checks most employers run were never designed to close it.

What UK ENIC statements actually confirm

UK ENIC is the designated national agency for the recognition of international qualifications in the United Kingdom. Its principal output is the Statement of Comparability, which sets out what level a foreign qualification sits at relative to the UK framework — that a given degree is comparable to a UK bachelor's, for instance.

That is genuinely useful. An employer looking at an unfamiliar qualification from an unfamiliar institution needs to know what it is worth.

But read what the statement answers: what level is this qualification? It does not answer was this qualification issued to this person? UK ENIC works from the documents presented. It does not contact the awarding institution to confirm the award was made.

How QQI's service works in Ireland

Ireland's arrangement mirrors it. NARIC Ireland, operated by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), compares foreign qualifications against Ireland's National Framework of Qualifications and issues comparability advice.

Same function, same jurisdictional logic, and the same boundary: QQI's own guidance is explicit that employers should verify and authenticate qualifications separately. The comparison service is not an authentication service, and it does not present itself as one.

So an employer in either country can hold a formally correct comparability statement for a qualification that was never awarded.

The gap: level comparison versus authenticity

The fourth row is the finding. An employer running all three standard checks has established academic level, immigration status and UK criminal history, and has verified nothing about whether the credential is real.

Booka is credentialing infrastructure that verifies a degree directly with the issuing institution — primary source verification — which UK ENIC and NARIC Ireland do not perform.

Real cases: when the gap became fraud

Zholia Alemi practised as an NHS psychiatrist for over twenty years without holding a medical qualification. She has been ordered to repay £406,624. Her registration originated in a documentary check that was never traced back to the awarding institution.

Tanya Nasir falsified the date of her nursing qualification, was appointed to run a neonatal unit, and received a five-year custodial sentence.

More than 700 NHS nurses have been under investigation over potentially fraudulent qualifications — a figure that describes a systemic gap rather than isolated bad actors.

Axact, a Pakistani diploma mill, sold over 3,000 fake credentials to UK buyers in a single reported period, including to people presenting as nurses, an anaesthetist and an ophthalmologist.

And the gap is not confined to Britain. In June 2025 a doctor was found guilty in Ireland of attempting to register with the Medical Council using forged diplomas.

Is verification legally required?

It is worth being precise here, because overstating this is how credibility gets lost in a procurement conversation.

There is no single general statutory duty, in either the UK or Ireland, requiring an employer to verify the authenticity of a foreign qualification. Right to work checks are a strict legal obligation, but they cover identity and immigration status.

What does drive verification:

• Professional regulators in regulated occupations, which set their own evidential requirements for registration.
• Duty of care, particularly where an unqualified person could cause harm to patients or service users.
• Sponsor licence risk. 1,948 care sector sponsor licences were revoked between July 2024 and June 2025, and an audit asks what due diligence was performed and what evidence exists.
• Reputational exposure, which the cases above quantify better than any argument.

Verification is a risk decision, not a compliance box. Treating it as the latter is how organisations end up with formally correct files and an Alemi on the payroll.

What a Statement of Comparability contains

It helps to be concrete about what the document in your file actually says, because its wording is careful and often skimmed.

A Statement of Comparability names the foreign qualification, the awarding institution, and the UK or Irish qualification level it is judged comparable to. It is issued on the basis of the documents submitted by the applicant.

What it does not contain is any assertion that the awarding institution confirmed the award. That is not an oversight in the drafting — it is outside the service's remit. The agency is answering a question about frameworks, not about a person.

So the file entry reads as authoritative, and is authoritative, about something other than what the reader usually assumes.

What the screening market does and does not cover

Employers frequently assume a background screening contract closes this gap. Mostly it does not.

The last row is worth pausing on. The UK has a functioning degree verification service — for UK degrees. For a nurse trained in Lagos, a doctor trained in Lahore or a physiotherapist trained in Manila, there is no equivalent standing service, which is precisely the population where the risk concentrates.

How to close it operationally

Verification is not difficult; it is usually just nobody's job. A workable process:

1. 1
   Separate the two questions in your hiring workflow.

   "Can they work here?" and "is the qualification real?" are different checks with different owners and different evidence.

2. 2
   Trigger verification at offer stage, not after onboarding.

   Discovering a problem after someone has started is the expensive path.

3. 3
   Verify with the awarding institution

   , not by examining the certificate. A competent forgery is convincing by construction.

4. 4
   Store the confirmation with a date

   , retrievable years later by someone who was not involved in the hire.

5. 5
   Apply it consistently.

   Verifying selectively — by nationality, by institution reputation, by instinct — creates both a discrimination exposure and an uneven risk profile.

What primary source verification adds

Primary source verification means going to the institution that issued the qualification and obtaining confirmation, from that institution, that it was awarded to the named person.

The practical difference is between a judgement and a record. An employer who examined a certificate and found it convincing has made a judgement — and a competent forgery is convincing by definition. An employer holding dated confirmation from the awarding body has a record that survives being questioned years later.

The Verifier Agent contacts the issuing institution directly and returns documented confirmation, normally within 5 to 15 days, retained and retrievable. For organisations hiring at volume, that evidence is available through your own portal and under your own brand, so the verification trail sits inside your process rather than beside it.

As of August 2026 the descriptions of UK ENIC and NARIC Ireland services above reflect their published scope. Both may change their offering; confirm current scope directly before relying on any single point.

Continue reading

• how this applies to QQI Level 5 for care workers
• why this gap shows up in sponsor licence audits
• how UK and Irish registration bodies handle this

Take the next step

• How the Verifier Agent verifies at the source
• Primary source verification, explained end to end