From ECA statement to CRS education points: IRCC's 152-row table read line by line

IRCC publishes a public table listing every phrase an educational credential assessment report can contain, and maps each phrase to one of eight levels of education. It is a government document, written for the public, and reading it carefully answers questions that no agency will answer for you — IQAS states flatly that “IQAS cannot provide information on eligibility for IRCC points”, and ICAS that “Education points are awarded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.”

Three things become visible only when you read all the rows rather than looking up your own. Field of study can outrank degree level. No standalone postgraduate or graduate diploma appears anywhere in the table. And the two tabs on the same page — one for the Comprehensive Ranking System, one for the Federal Skilled Worker Program selection factors — do not contain the same list of rows.

This page explains what the published table says and how it is structured. It does not calculate anyone’s score, does not predict an invitation, and does not recommend a course of study.

The shape of the table

As read on 3 September 2026, with the page carrying a Date modified of 22 June 2026, the Comprehensive Ranking System tab contains 152 rows. Each row pairs an assessment result — the exact wording an ECA might use — with one of eight “levels of education”, and each level carries a fixed point value.

Level of education (IRCC’s wording)	Rows	CRS with a spouse	CRS without a spouse	FSW factor points
University degree at the Doctoral (PhD) level	6	140	150	25
University degree at the Master’s level	10	126	135	23
Professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession	38	126	135	23
Two or more certificates, diplomas, or degrees	52	119	128	22
Bachelor’s degree or other programs (three or more years) at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute	19	112	120	21
Two-year degree, diploma or certificate	11	91	98	19
One-year degree, diploma or certificate	8	84	90	15
Secondary school (high school diploma)	8	28	30	5

The structure is worth stating plainly: the table has 152 entries but only eight outcomes. Almost all of the length is IRCC listing the many different phrasings that land in the same box.

Five things that are only visible from the whole table

1. A three-year and a four-year bachelor’s are separate rows in the same box

“Bachelor’s degree (three years)”, “Three-year Bachelor degree”, “Bachelor’s degree (four years)” and “Four-year Bachelor degree” are four distinct rows, and all four map to the same level of education for the same points. So do “College Diploma (three years)”, “Three-year advanced diploma” and “Four-year advanced diploma”. The line in this box is drawn at three years, not at the word “bachelor”. The consequences of that are set out in your ECA says “Bachelor’s degree (three years)”.

2. Field of study can outrank degree level

The “Professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession” box scores above a bachelor’s and level with a master’s. Its 38 rows are all discipline-named: medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, podiatry, optometry, law, chiropractic and pharmacy. Two rows in it are startling if you have only read the bachelor’s box:

• “Bachelor of Laws” and “Juris Doctor” sit in the professional-degree box, not the bachelor’s box.
• “Four-year Bachelor of Science degree with a focus in pharmacy” and “Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree” sit there too — while a four-year Bachelor of Science in anything else sits in the bachelor’s box.

The same nominal degree length therefore maps to two different levels depending on the discipline named in the ECA result. What the table does not do is let you argue your way into that box: the row is triggered by the wording of the assessment result, and the wording is chosen by the assessing organisation under its own policies, not by you.

3. There is no standalone row for a postgraduate or graduate diploma

Search the 152 rows for “Postgraduate Diploma”, “Graduate Diploma”, “Post-Bachelor’s Certificate” or “Post-undergraduate diploma” and every hit is inside the combination box — as the second half of a phrase beginning “Three-year or more certificate, diploma, or degree plus a…”. None of them appears on its own in the one-year, two-year or three-or-more-year boxes.

Read literally, that means the table contemplates a postgraduate diploma as something that sits on top of a longer credential, and does not publish a standalone landing place for one. It does not follow that a postgraduate diploma “is worth nothing”; it follows that if your ECA report comes back using one of those phrases on its own, the phrase you are looking for is not in the table, and the only body that can tell you which level applies is IRCC. That is a real limitation of the published document and we are not going to paper over it.

4. Every combination row begins with a credential of three or more years

All 52 rows in the “Two or more certificates, diplomas, or degrees” box start with the same eleven words: “Three-year or more certificate, diploma, or degree plus a…”. There is no row that combines two short credentials.

IRCC states the rule in prose on the same page — “To get full points for more than 1 credential, at least 1 of the credentials must be for 3 or more years of study” — and the table simply enumerates it. It also states that “The order that you complete your credentials does not affect points.” The practical arithmetic of this box is worked through in one-year versus two-year credentials.

5. The combination box scores below a master’s

The combination box is 119/128. A master’s is 126/135. A three-year-or-more credential on its own is 112/120. So on IRCC’s published numbers, adding a second credential to a bachelor’s moves you seven points, and a master’s is a further seven above that. Those are the published values; what they are worth in any given round is not something this page will speculate about.

The two tabs are not the same list

The same IRCC page offers a second tab for Federal Skilled Worker Program selection factor points. The two tabs share the eight levels of education, but not the rows. Comparing them row by row on 3 September 2026:

• “Doctor of Pharmacy” appears in the Comprehensive Ranking System tab and not in the Federal Skilled Worker tab.
• The one-year box differs in wording: the CRS tab carries “Undergraduate (1 year) certificate” and “University certificate or diploma”; the FSW tab instead carries “University Certificate” and “University Diploma” as two separate rows.
• The CRS tab has 152 rows; the FSW tab has 151.

There is also one row in the combination box whose text is visibly doubled — it reads “Three-year or more certificate, diploma, or degree plus a Three-year or more certificate, diploma, or degree plus a Bachelor’s degree (four years)”. That is what the published page says; it appears to be a duplicated prefix rather than a distinct rule.

None of this is a reason for alarm. It is a reason to do one specific thing: use the filter box on IRCC’s own page with the exact phrase printed on your report, on the tab that matches the programme you are applying under, rather than relying on any third party’s transcription — including this one.

How to read the table without misreading it

1. Match the phrase, not the meaning. IRCC’s instruction is “Use this table to find the result on your report” and “Choose the assessment result that matches your report.” The input is the assessing organisation’s wording, not your description of your degree.
2. Levels are not tiers of prestige. Eight boxes, 152 phrasings. Two credentials that feel very different to you can land in the same box, and two that feel identical can land in different ones because of a discipline word.
3. The table maps education only. It does not touch language, age, work experience, a job offer, a provincial nomination or the Canadian-education bonus. It is one factor among several.
4. A level of education is not a licence and not an admission. Canada’s national information centre states that assessments from all six Alliance members “are advisory only”, and IRCC’s own page says an ECA “doesn’t guarantee that… you’ll get a license to practice in a regulated profession.”
5. Distance learning is not excluded here. IRCC’s criteria page: “Distance learning counts for education points, but not for bonus points in your profile or application.” The detail is in online and distance degrees.

What to do with this

1. Read your report’s exact result phrase first, then find it on IRCC’s page. If it is not there verbatim, that is a question for IRCC, not for a forum.
2. If you hold more than one credential, check whether at least one is three years or more before assuming the combination box applies at all.
3. If your report is more than five years old, the points question is moot — IRCC refuses applications filed with an expired ECA. See five years from the date of issue.
4. Do not choose a course of study to move between boxes. That is a decision with a five-figure cost and an uncertain rule set, and giving that advice for a fee is a licensed activity in Canada.

What this page does not do

It does not calculate anyone’s score, does not estimate whether any score would be invited, does not say which credential you should have assessed, and does not recommend any programme of study. Paid immigration advice in Canada is a regulated, licensed activity. This page reports what a public government table says and how it is organised, nothing more.