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Note added at 7 mins (2009-03-22 15:35:29 GMT)
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Académie de la Guadeloupe, pédagogie, Second degré, Collèges et Lycées
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Il n'y a pas vraiment d'équivalent eu Anglais US, car la fin des études secondaires ne donne pas lieu à un examen général.

Do not translate.

Here is my standard explanation for why you can't just "translate" a degree:

The short explanation is: translators are not in a position to determine degree equivalencies, a complex task that can only be performed by qualified officials at degree-awarding institutions. I speak from experience not only as a translator but as a retired academic: I sat for years on a university committee that developed the standards for admission, transfer and graduation from that institution. Once those standards are developed and approved by the institutional community and its officials, they become part of the tools with which a university registrar, for example, can work. Registrars are the *only* officials at an institution of higher learning who can evaluate degree equivalencies. And they can only do so in terms of their own institution's standards. Not even they are in a position to "re-award" a degree earned elsewhere!

*Awarding* a degree or a diploma means holding a ceremony and issuing a document, to bestow a status on the recipient. In this, degrees and diplomas are similar to *names* (of institutions, brands, companies). If the entity has names in more than one language, then it becomes possible to select the already existing name in the target language, in place of the one used in the source language. If the name only exists in the target language, it does not fall to the translator to re-baptize the entity in a new language.

In like manner, we can only substitute the *name* of a degree when it already exists in the target language. Canadian degrees, for instance, have names in both French and English (or English and French...) Such is not the case for any degrees from institutions in France or the Côte d'Ivoire, for instance, where their awarding is only done in French. The same applies to degrees "awarded in Spanish": in fact, they are being awarded under national standards, not “in languages” [in the case of diplomas from Colombia, for instance, these standards are governed by government decrees, as they are in many other countries!] The best that we humble translators can do is to cite the *name* of the degree, and include a parenthetical explanation, which is how I have phrased my answer, above.

As an example of the lack of equivalence between names and content, here is an explanation taken from an article on another French-language-based educational system, this one in Lebanon, where they appear to have retained a model similar to the old French one (note the mention of the one degree–also awarded in Lebanon, at the American University–that *is* a Ph.D):

"This stage involves writing a dissertation leading to the doctoral degree. The Doctorat de Troisième Cycle is awarded after two years of study beyond the Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies. The Doctorat d'État (in medicine and pharmacology) is awarded after a further two years of study. Finally, the Ph.D. degree is only offered at American-style universities." http://www.wes.org/ewenr/00jan/practical.htm.

N.B. FWIW, institutions usually have their catalogs on-line, so if the name of the school is available, one can check on the meaning of a degree that way. That would make a parenthetical explanation more meaningful, wouldn't it?