UGC asks institutions to submit digital copy of degrees

As the sale-purchase of fake degrees continues to remain a menace, the university grants commission (UGC) has tightened the noose around the higher education institutions which are yet to start submitting digital versions of the certificates of students on the national academic depository (NAD), created in 2016 for safe storage, retrieval and verification of the documents.

Giving them a deadline, the higher education regulator has directed the institutions to submit both “the legacy and fresh data” of the students who have passed.

It has also made it compulsory for all institutions to provide national academic depository (NAD) identity to each of their students at the time of admission. Those already enrolled will have been given a NAD-ID ahead of their examinations.

The HRD ministry had created the NAD in 2016 not just to provide a facility for safe storage and retrieval of the academic certificates but also their verification to put a check on the use of counterfeit/fake academic credentials in education and employment.

The national depository is maintained by NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) and CDSL Ventures Limited (CVL).

“To attain the objectives of the NAD, you are requested to kindly upload the legacy and fresh data of your institution before December 31, 2019,” the UGC secretary Rajnish Jain recently asked in a communication to the heads of the higher education institutions.

The email addresses and mobile numbers of the students should be provided by the academic institutions to the depositories for automatic creation of the NAD IDs, he added.

Out of nearly 1000 universities and 40,000 other higher education institutions, just 1,172 institutions including all central universities, 369 State universities, and 222 private universities have so far come on board to submit digital versions of the degrees and other academic certificates of their students at NAD.

As many as 16 secondary school examination boards including the central board of secondary education (CBSE) have also started submitting digital versions of their students' academic certificates at NAD.

The UGC has asked the institutions lagging behind to come on board and enhance the reach of the NAD programme.

“Designate nodal officers and set up a dedicated NAD cell for implementation of the NAD. Advise students to register on the NAD website,” the commission instructed in its communication to the institutions.

It also asked the institutions, which have come on board, to reach out to their students whose awards HAVE already uploaded on the NAD.

“Suggest them to start using the NAD services for accessing their academic awards,” the commission added.