ICEQC mandate
ICEQC is authorized by its institutional and controlled documents to develop and publish ICEQC education quality requirements, administer applications, confirm certification objects and scopes, determine applicability, verify evidence, record conformity conclusions, require and verify remediation, make independent certification decisions, maintain certification through surveillance and change review, control certificate status and publish authoritative certificate records.
That mandate is exercised through the current ICEQC document hierarchy. Private correspondence, assessor opinion, training material, software behaviour, promotional wording or an informal practice cannot enlarge the mandate, create an unpublished requirement or change the public effect of certification.
What ICEQC certification establishes
A positive ICEQC certification decision establishes that every requirement applicable to the confirmed certification object and scope was supported as Conforming at the decision gate, every recorded Not Applicable conclusion had an objectively confirmed basis, and no open nonconformity or unresolved material evidence limitation prevented certification.
The resulting certificate and Public Certificate Register record identify the only holder, object, scope, document editions, validity period and status to which that conclusion applies. The certification remains subject to continuing conformity, surveillance, material-change notification and any later effective decision concerning maintenance, suspension, restoration, scope reduction, withdrawal or expiry.
Relationship to public authority
ICEQC certification is a voluntary third-party attestation under the ICEQC standards and certification system. It does not exercise or replace the jurisdiction of a government, regulator, licensing authority, statutory accreditor, qualification authority, court or other competent public institution.
An ICEQC certification shall not be represented as recognition, authorization, accreditation, approval or endorsement of the certified subject by any other organization, public authority or national administration. Consultation with, information received from, or absence of objection by a public authority does not constitute governmental approval or delegation unless the competent authority makes a separate express public act within its lawful powers.
Matters not determined by ICEQC certification
Authorization to operate
Certification does not establish a legal right to establish or operate an education provider, service, platform, product or regulated activity.
Licensing and statutory accreditation
Certification is not an education licence and is not statutory institutional or programme accreditation.
Qualifications and recognition
ICEQC does not award academic credit, recognize a degree, determine academic equivalence or decide admission, transfer, professional-recognition or immigration outcomes.
Legal determinations
ICEQC does not act as a court, regulator or universal legal adviser and does not certify that every law in every jurisdiction has been satisfied.
Comparative quality
Certification is not a score, rank, grade, star, award, excellence level or finding that the holder is better than another person.
Future guarantees
Certification does not guarantee a particular learning outcome, employment result, safety outcome, uninterrupted service, commercial performance or future conformity.
Continuing responsibility of the certified subject
The applicant and certificate holder retain primary responsibility for the certified object, the accuracy of information supplied to ICEQC, compliance with applicable law, continuing fulfilment of ICEQC requirements and correction of any misleading certification claim. Independent certification does not transfer that responsibility to ICEQC.
Depending on the jurisdiction and activity, continuing obligations may concern education authorization, safeguarding, employment, professional regulation, immigration, accessibility, data protection, cybersecurity, consumer protection, product safety, taxation and other regulated matters. The holder must identify and meet the obligations that apply to it.
Use of regulatory and external evidence
An ICEQC requirement may call for evidence of a licence, registration, authorization, specialist assessment or other external fact. ICEQC verifies the relevance, scope, issuer, validity, authenticity and limitations of that evidence for the applicable ICEQC requirement. It does not convert the external evidence into a broader ICEQC or governmental conclusion.
Where the evidence is partial, unavailable or legally restricted, ICEQC may require another reliable method, limit the certification scope, defer a conclusion or determine the requirement Nonconforming. An official-looking title, seal, signature, digital appearance or third-party conclusion is not sufficient without verification of its authority and relevance.
How to read an ICEQC certification claim
- Confirm the legal certificate holder in the Public Certificate Register.
- Identify whether the certified object is an Education Organization, Education Technology Service or Educational Product.
- Read the complete certified scope, included components and material exclusions.
- Confirm the applicable ICEQC scheme, requirements, modules and editions.
- Check the effective date, expiry date, current status and status-effective date.
- Do not extend the claim to a parent, subsidiary, brand, partner, franchisee, campus, programme, platform, integration, product, model, version, learner or professional unless the public record expressly includes it.
Correct public wording
A certification claim should identify ICEQC as the certification body, state the certified object and scope accurately, use the current certificate number and provide a direct route to the Public Certificate Register. Where space is limited, the abbreviated claim must remain accurate and must not conceal a limitation material to a reasonable reader.
The words accreditation, recognition, authorization, approval, ranking, award and equivalent expressions must not be used to enlarge the effect of ICEQC certification. Certificates, marks, translations, hashtags, search terms, advertisements, metadata and oral representations are all capable of creating a certification claim and remain subject to the same boundary.