KOCHI: Taking a step towards making students’ certificates more accessible and curbing document forgery and fraud, Cusat has initiated steps to join the National Academy Depository (NAD) of the Centre.
NAD is a 24/7 online facility which stores all academic awards: Certificates, diplomas, degrees and marksheets in digital format. This ensures easy access and retrieval of an academic document and guarantees its authenticity. Of course, it is also secure.
Cusat’s move is aimed at helping recruiters check the authenticity of its students’ and alumni’s academic credentials online. Vice-Chancellor J Letha told Express they had opened a cell at the university for joining NAD.“Two agencies suggested by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) have been entrusted with the task. The facility is expected to get fully functional in this academic year itself,” Letha said.
The MHRD-issued guidelines on NAD mandate the academic institutions should upload and authenticate all the documents in digital form. NAD will provide a digital or printed copy of the document with security features to students or other authorised users. It will also verify the academic awards online on the same day of the request initiated by any authorised user. This will ensure safe storage and easy retrieval of documents, facilitate validation and is expected to eliminate fraudulent practices like forging of certificates and marksheets. Only users having a student’s consent can access the documents.
BENEFITS GALORE
The online facility will check the spread of fake degrees, as the government will permit only recognised institutions to upload their students’ certificates. The facility will also benefit degree holders as their data will ve secure in the depository. Students and recruiters need not approach educational institutions to obtain the transcripts of awards or mark statements for verification.