United International Business Schools (UIBS), a multi-campus, private and global business school, partners with Swiss startup BlockFactory to offer its students blockchain-verifiable diplomas as one of the first higher education institutions to do so.
With over 100 nationalities represented among its alumni, who are based around the world and who are professionally active in different types and sizes of organizations across industries, the school’s Office of the Registrar deals with numerous diploma verification requests each year. From a student’s perspective, the diploma verification process can take up quite some time and be overly complicated.
Tamper-proof diplomas
For UIBS, the objective is to provide secure and tamper-proof diplomas to its students, and in turn, secure the school’s own reputation as an organization that is at the forefront of technology.
“With blockchain-verifiable diplomas we are able to take our diploma granting and verification process to the next level. We are very excited to offer this cutting-edge technology to our students and integrate it into our daily operations”, says Mr. Thierry Kirschstein, Managing Director. “All certificates, diplomas, degrees and other documents issued by the school will not only be awarded the traditional way on paper in a schoolbranded diploma cover but can also be awarded through the Ethereum blockchain. With this technology, we are adding a whole new dimension to diploma verification, of which students and alumni who opt for blockchain-verifiable diplomas will benefit. With secure document verification through blockchain technology, one benefit is that employers can instantly verify the validity of the document during the recruitment and hiring process, thereby reducing the processing time and avoiding unnecessary delays. Those graduates with Blockchain-verifiable diplomas will have a major benefit over other candidates when it comes to the speed at which they can go through the hiring process.”
UIBS uses BlockFactory’s Certifaction solution that enables educational institutions to fight fraud and cut the red tape in the diploma verification process with immutable documents. BlockFactory’s CEO Benoit Henry says: “We are delighted to welcome UIBS to our Certifaction family. With our solution, this leading business school with a global footprint adopts a cutting-edge, yet easy-to-use blockchain technology, that will both protect the integrity of their diplomas and position them as a forerunner in the technology space”.
Diploma verification
In todays’ day and age, many diplomas as well as other certificates and documents can relatively easily be forged. In order to verify the authenticity of a diploma, currently the verifier (e.g. an employer) has to go through a complicated and time-consuming process that involves both the diploma issuer and the diploma holder, due to data privacy regulations. At almost all universities the diploma verification process is still a manual one, requiring significant time and resources for back-office administration. Staff spend a significant amount of time managing each verification request, and the actual verification process can take up several weeks to finish, leaving both parties frustrated. With blockchain-verifiable diplomas, UIBS creates immutable documents that simplify and cut down the verification process to mere minutes. The issued diplomas can be verified at https://www.uibs.org/about_uibs_blockchain_verification.html.
Blockchain benefits
- There is no specific blockchain knowledge needed for the type of blockchain-verifiable diplomas that UIBS issues. The blockchain-verifiable diplomas that UIBS issue consist of a simple PDF document that students can decide who they want to share it with. The diploma verification tool is also very easy to use and works without a login and password.
- Blockchain verification provides extra protection for valuable documents. The diploma’s unique fingerprint is registered on over 7000 Ethereum blockchain nodes worldwide.
- Recent graduates no longer experience unnecessary delays when applying to jobs due to employers no longer needing to manually verify diplomas.
- Employers can instantly verify diplomas and recruit credible candidates, thereby saving significant amounts of time and money, and shortening the diploma verification process from weeks to minutes.
- Students can build and protect their academic and professional reputation with a blockchainverifiable diploma of which the authenticity cannot be questioned. They can also enrich their LinkedIn profile by sharing the qualification with their entire network.
- Students can use their digital diploma while keeping their paper diploma in a wall-mounted glass frame behind their desk, or stored in the original diploma cover, and not worry about damaging or losing the diploma.
- Blockchain-verifiable diplomas are also a great way to protect the school’s reputation from fraud.
Why blockchain
Blockchain technology allows anyone to store information on a distributed ledger. This ledger is where the “fingerprint” of documents is stored. Anyone can then view the information on the blockchain, which makes it all very transparent. Due to its digital nature, issuing documents on the blockchain can be automated very easily and thus increase efficiency and reduce costs by streamlining previously manual processes.
