BENGALURU: Graduates from colleges affiliated to Bangalore University (BU) allege that they are being deprived of their degree certificates in original hard copy. They said when their respective college authorities are approached, the latter claim that the BU is issuing certificates only through DigiLocker and that no physical degree certificates would be provided.
According to graduates from the batch of 2021-2024 (undergraduate) the issue started in 2024, when a circular from the University Grants Commission (UGC) was shared by the BU, which stated that graduation certificates and documents obtained from DigiLocker would be “valid documents as per the provision of the Information Technology Act, 2000”. The circular, however, did not exempt universities from providing marksheets and graduation certificates.
A BA graduate from St Claret College (an autonomous college affiliated to the BU) said the college had obtained fees specifically for degree certificates in original hard copy, but refused to issue it even after two years. “Even on DigiLocker, our degree certificates are not available. Only the first two semesters’ marksheets are available. I had to use a provisional degree certificate to take admission in a master’s programme,” said the student, who hails from Tamil Nadu.
Another BA graduate (in Psychology and Journalism) from the Jnana Pith campus of Bangalore University, said, “It has been two years now and we are yet to receive hard copies of our certificates, including the marks cards and convocation certificates.
Every semester, the university charged Rs 200 as processing fees for the issuance of these documents. Recently, when the college office was contacted, they mentioned that the BU would not issue any original documents, and we have to get printouts from DigiLocker and get them attested by the college authorities. We checked on DigiLocker but the certificates are still not available there.”
A source in the BU acknowledged the issue and said that the transition into DigiLocker was purely done as per instructions from the UGC. “We have received a lot of complaints from graduates.
Some students’ documents are not available on DigiLocker because there is a glitch with the Unified University College Management System (UUCMS) – a portal operated by the Government of Karnataka for admission approval and result processing.
For some students, their names or other details entered into the UUCMS differ from those in their personal identification documents like Aadhaar. We have already written to the Higher Education Department about this,” he said.