PU to give Digital Degrees to Students to curb Forgery

Panjab University has come up with the concept of digital degrees. Some of the features embedded in the degree that students will receive this March include waterproof, non-tearable, bar-coded and a sheet with security thread and micro printing.

Over 900 students will receive this degree on the annual convocation of Panjab University. In addition, 80,000 students who have finished studies from PU and its affiliated colleges will be honoured with such degrees, on which PU has already printed the Quick Response (QR) codes on the top left corner.

Professor Parvinder Singh, Controller of Examination (COE), Panjab University, mentioned that the project is incorporated to remove the cases of fake degree certificates and to make the degree verification process easier. He also said that though the University has not received any such case of the fake degree certificates, but there have been cases elsewhere. Hence, the University needs to be cautious.

Professor Singh also said that the degree has some hidden security features, which gives the details of the students’ enrolment number, date of exam or the exams taken, etc. He added that the university spent three times the amount in designing these certificates compared to last year.

An official from the PU examination branch said that the degree will be pink in colour and the border lines will have security features. The official further said that the other universities in the country are also printing QR codes on their degree certificates, considering it as a solution for the bogus certificates issue at the time of admissions.

Examination branch is usually burdened with the applications from students going abroad and elsewhere for higher education and wishing to get their varsity degree certificates verified. Professor Singh said the bar-coded degrees will enable them to get it verified in no time.