The State Examination Center of the Republic of Azerbaijan

The State Examination Center of Azerbaijan (SEC) is a public legal entity established in 2016 based on the abolishment of the State Students Admission Commission (est. 1992) and the Civil Service Commission (est. 2005). The SEC has nine regional branches in the country and operates with 300 full-time and more than 2000 part-time staff members. The SEC is currently managed by Chairperson of the Board of Directors, appointed by the President of the country. Mission: To improve the quality of education through sophisticated, valid, fair, and reliable assessment and research. Vision: To contribute to the improvement of the quality of education in Azerbaijan. Values: principles of control, transparency, and quality. The SEC is a national testing agency responsible for developing and administering school-leaving exams, university entrance exams for undergraduate (including VET) and graduate admissions (including advanced medical studies of residency), and selection exams for civil service recruitment. For many years of running objective high-stakes testing programs, the SEC has played a crucial role in setting a social lift in the Azerbaijani society, which established trust and confidence by the public. SEC (formerly known as the State Students Admission Commission) is a primary member of the International Association for Educational Assessment since 1999. Through the international projects, SEC’s staff members received advanced training and continued professional consultancy from the US-based Educational Testing Services and CITO (Dutch Educational Measurement Institute) of the Netherlands to develop the SEC’s testing and research practices. The SEC's product developers designed secure printing services, e-marker, and ProctorDIM software solutions. Additionally, the SEC cooperates with different test delivery organizations to administer international testing programs such as TOEFL iBT, GRE, SAT, PTE-Academic, and many professional exams offered by Pearson VUE.