Is a Russian Diploma of Professional Retraining the same as an academic degree?
TL;DRA client submitted two Russian credentials from the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis: a 2025 Diploma of Professional Retraining (2,800 hours, psychoanalytic counseling) and a 2022 Certificate of Advanced Training (48 hours). Both fall under Russian supplementary professional education — not academic degrees. We labeled each document type precisely, preserved the legal grant phrase, and kept the hour counts intact. The packet was delivered for Academic Evaluation Services (AES) filing.
Case Specifications
- Document
- Russian supplementary professional education (DPO) packet — Diploma of Professional Retraining plus appendix, and Certificate of Advanced Training
- Foreign Name
- Диплом о профессиональной переподготовке (с приложением) + Удостоверение о повышении квалификации — НОЧУ ВО «Московский институт психоанализа»
- Country
- Russian Federation
- Languages
- Russian → English
- Submitted To
- Academic Evaluation Services (AES) credential evaluation packet
What We Received
A client submitted two Russian-language credentials from the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis. The first was a 2025 Diploma of Professional Retraining (Диплом о профессиональной переподготовке) for a 2,800-hour program in psychoanalytic counseling, with a full appendix of disciplines and grades. The second was a 2022 Certificate of Advanced Training (Удостоверение о повышении квалификации) for a 48-hour course on conducting initial online consultations.
The client needed a [certified Russian diploma translation](/translate/russian-diploma) for Academic Evaluation Services (AES). Both documents share the same institutional issuer and follow the format of Russian supplementary professional education (дополнительное профессиональное образование, or DPO).
Why This Required Special Handling
In English, 'diploma' usually means a primary academic credential. In Russian, 'диплом' covers a wider category. A Russian DPO retraining diploma is not a Master's, a Bachelor's, or a Specialist's. It is a non-degree credential under Russian Federation supplementary professional education law. A generic English rendering as 'Diploma' collapses the two categories and lets a US credential evaluator default to the academic-degree interpretation.
Russian DPO itself has two sub-types. A program of at least 250 hours produces a Diploma of Professional Retraining and grants the right to engage in a new professional activity. A shorter course produces a Certificate of Advanced Training and upgrades existing skills. The two document types look similar at a glance — same institute, same seal, similar legalese. A [translation packet for credential evaluation](/accepted-by/wes) that labels both as 'Diploma' or both as 'Certificate' loses the distinction the evaluator needs.
The retraining diploma carries a single sentence that signals the credential category. The Russian text reads 'предоставляет право на ведение профессиональной деятельности в сфере психоаналитического консультирования' — in English, 'grants the right to engage in professional activity in the field of psychoanalytic counseling.' That sentence is the legal hallmark of DPO. Dropping or paraphrasing it removes the only direct evidence in the document body of what kind of credential the holder actually received.
How We Handled It
We translated each document type label precisely. The 2025 document was rendered 'Diploma of Professional Retraining,' not 'Diploma.' The 2022 document was rendered 'Certificate of Advanced Training,' not 'Diploma' or bare 'Certificate.' Each label tracks the Russian original and matches the formal English terminology used in Russian DPO regulations.
The legal grant phrase was preserved verbatim in the body of the retraining diploma. The sentence that distinguishes a professional credential from a degree appears in the same position as in the original. The hour counts were also kept as printed: 2,800 hours for the retraining diploma, 48 hours for the advanced-training certificate. A credential evaluator can see the order-of-magnitude difference between the two documents at a glance.
The full appendix was translated as a complete transcript: 39 disciplines, hours per discipline, a final interdisciplinary examination, and the defense of the final certification work (the thesis title was preserved in full). Russian word-grades were rendered in plain English — 'Excellent' for отлично, 'Good' for хорошо, 'Pass' for зачтено. No grade was converted to a US GPA or a letter-grade scale, because that conversion is the [certified diploma translation](/documents/diploma) evaluator's job, not the translator's.
A Translator's Note covered the DPO category, the document-type distinction, and the structure of the holder's Russian name (Last Name + First Name + Patronymic). A reviewer who is not a Russian-speaker can read the packet without context loss.
"This certified translation covers two Russian supplementary professional education (DPO) credentials issued under Russian Federation law. A Diploma of Professional Retraining (Диплом о профессиональной переподготовке) is a non-degree credential, awarded for retraining programs of at least 250 hours, granting the holder the right to engage in a new professional activity. A Certificate of Advanced Training (Удостоверение о повышении квалификации) is a non-degree credential, awarded for shorter programs, upgrading existing skills. Neither is equivalent to a primary academic degree such as a Bachelor's, Specialist's, or Master's. The holder's name appears in the original in the Russian convention of Last Name + First Name + Patronymic; it has been transliterated and rendered in the same order in this translation, with the patronymic preserved as a legal component of the Russian name."
The Outcome
The five-page certified translation packet was delivered for the holder's AES filing. The packet covers the Diploma of Professional Retraining with its appendix on three pages, and the Certificate of Advanced Training on the fourth page, plus a Certificate of Translation Accuracy.
We have used the same labeling approach for every Russian DPO credential we have translated since 2024. The rule is: when the source document is supplementary professional education, the English label must say so.
What This Means for You
If your Russian credential is a 'диплом о профессиональной переподготовке' or an 'удостоверение о повышении квалификации,' it is not an academic degree. A US credential evaluator will treat it as a non-degree professional credential. A certified translation that uses the precise document-type labels and preserves the legal grant phrase keeps the credential category intact across the language boundary. The same logic applies to other former-USSR DPO credentials. See our [Russian translation services](/languages/russian) for related work.
Have a similar situation?
We translate Russian supplementary professional education (DPO) credentials — Diploma of Professional Retraining, Certificate of Advanced Training, full course appendices — into English for AES, WES, ECE, IQAS, and other NACES-member credential evaluations. Document-type labels matched to Russian DPO regulations, legal grant phrase preserved, hour counts and grading vocabulary kept intact. $24.95/page, delivered in 24 hours.
Related Cases & Resources
Sources & References
- NACES — Member Organizations (Academic Evaluation Services)·National Association of Credential Evaluation Services·Verified 2026-05-27
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