WES evaluation for Indian students: papers, fees and steps

If you plan to study or work abroad, a body such as WES (World Education Services) will usually check your papers first. This check is called an evaluation. WES has clear rules for degrees from India. The rules say which papers it needs and who must send them.

It is best to plan for this before you graduate. Some papers take months to arrive, and your degree itself may come long after your results.

WES does not use papers that you send yourself. It needs them to come sealed from your college, or to be sent online by your college. The seal shows that nobody has changed the papers.

A sealed set is no longer valid once you open it. If you want to read your marks, keep a separate open copy for yourself. Then order a sealed set for each body that asks for one. When you place the order, ask the exam office how it sends papers abroad and whether you will get a tracking number.

WES cannot assess a master's degree without the bachelor's degree behind it. So for an MBA, you need to order two sets of papers from two exam offices. Each set must be sealed and sent by its own university.

Contact both exam offices at the same time, so that one set does not hold up the other. If both of your degrees are from the same university, ask whether it can send both sets together.

Two papers are often confused. A transcript is a separate document from your combined marksheet, and you order and pay for each one separately. When you ask your exam office for papers for WES, ask which of the two it sends to WES.

Each college sets its own prices, and few colleges show them on their fee pages. The prices in the table come from other universities and show the kind of cost to expect. Some colleges will email a transcript directly to WES. The University of Delhi charges ₹500 for each transcript it emails, as its published fees show. If your college offers this service, you may not need a sealed paper set for WES at all. Ask about it in your final term.

Your degree may arrive several months after your results. Most Indian universities hold their convocation ceremony once a year. So a wait of six to eighteen months is normal, and no UGC rule sets a deadline.

You do not have to wait for the degree before you start. WES accepts a provisional certificate in place of the degree, as long as every year's marksheets are sent with it. See provisional certificate vs degree for more about this certificate.

WES reads the papers that your college sends. For an online degree, UGC's rules decide what must appear on the back of every degree, certificate and marksheet. The back must show how you studied, when you joined, when you finished and where you took your exams. This rule is Regulation 16(2).

What appears on the front of the degree is not fixed, and it varies from one university to another. So the back of your papers shows how you studied, and WES reads it as part of the evaluation.

Each degree also carries its own ID number, your photo and your Aadhaar number or another ID, under Regulation 16(1). Note the ID number on your degree and keep it safe. When you write to your exam office, quote this ID, your roll number and the year you finished. The office can then find your record quickly.

An evaluation and an attestation are two different jobs. Some countries also want your papers attested before they accept them. In India, the Ministry of External Affairs handles attestation through agencies that it appoints. This system has been in place since July 2012. The Ministry checks the signature on the paper, but it does not check what the paper says.

A degree that your college issues into DigiLocker counts as the original in India, under Rule 9A of the 2016 rules. However, that is an Indian rule. Evaluators and embassies abroad set their own rules. So do not plan to share a DigiLocker copy with WES. WES asks for papers sent by the college itself. Keep the DigiLocker copy for checks in India, such as an employer's check through NAD. Before you order any attestation, ask the body abroad which papers it wants attested. Then you can order the right number of copies the first time.

WES charges for each application, not for each degree you send. Its prices are in US and Canadian dollars, and they depend on the kind of report you need. A document-by-document report confirms what each degree is. A course-by-course report also lists every subject and grade, which universities abroad often ask for.

The prices in the table are WES's starting prices, from its evaluations page. The report used for Canadian immigration, called an ECA, costs C$264, and that price does not include delivery fees or tax. Your college's own charges for sending papers come on top of these.

Plan your evaluation in your final term, while you are still a student. Three mistakes slow students down most often. Opening a sealed set makes it invalid. Ordering too few sets means paying the full fee again. Forgetting your bachelor's papers stops WES from assessing your MBA.

A WES report shows what you studied, but it does not show that your course was recognised in India for your session. For that, keep a dated copy of your course's row on the UGC-DEB list. Recognition is recorded for each session and lasts five years, so the row you need may not be on the live list later. Keep this copy with your transcripts and your admission letter.