The University of Pretoria’s (UP) Department of Enrolment and Student Administration (DESA) is making use of E-Certificates, which is a secure digital certificate system that provides institutions with the ability to issue and verify electronic documents in a “one-click” secure process.

According to Dr Cila Myburgh, Director of DESA, “E-Certificates allow graduates to view their degree certificates, order reprints of their certificate(s), academic record(s) or academic transcript, verify their qualifications or order a declaration certificate. It also grants permission to third parties to connect with alumni to view their qualification documents, share their qualification documents and verify their qualification documents in a self-service online process.” Previously, this service was rendered by Managed Integrity Evaluation’s (MIE), an external service provider.  

To make use of this service, alumni must first visit the e-certificates link https://veri.up.ac.za/ to register their credentials and access their documents. Thereafter, they are able to view and share their documents with third parties They may place an order and complete an online payment for the requested documents. “This process eliminates all the manual processes related to the verification of alumni records, ” said Dr Myburgh.

Third parties will have the opportunity to log in and verify alumni records for employment purposes. Dr Myburgh said, “In order for third parties to login and view alumni records, the alumni should give consent and only then can third parties gain access to the records.”

Benefits of the qualification verification services and E-certificates:

• This is a self-service platform that gives alumni an opportunity to request documents remotely without delays.
• Alumni will be able to verify records faster and avoid email response delays.
• Third parties will be able to verify records faster and avoid email response delays.
• The payment method which is sometimes a challenge for international alumni will be eliminated as the new method will be universal and allow for various options and
• Alumni may download the pdf document (soft copy record) or request it be couriered without having to wait for a response from the verification officer for confirmation and this saves time.