FYI I Mumbai Univ students can soon create bank of verified documents

Mumbai Univ students can soon create bank of verified documents

Mumbai: Taking a step towards digitisation, Mumbai University (MU) will soon be part of a global document authentication network that will allow alumni and students to create a repository of verified documents. 

The process will allow alumni and students to send certified and authenticated documents electronically to their future employer, embassies for processing of visa or to institutions where they seek admissions for higher studies. The current process takes over two months and is expensive for students settled abroad.

A recent RTI query had revealed that MU received 274 fake degrees for verification by employers.

The global network, powered by the technology firm, myeasydocs, will have embassies, 100 foreign institutions, government offices and 1,000 employers through background check companies for corporates in their database and can be used by students during job hunts, admission to institutes of higher education or authentication for visas. The database will be expanded soon.

Once the student uploads his documents and selects his university, officials (exam controller's office in case of marksheets and degree certificates) will search the document in their database and verify it. The verified document will then be sent to the employer/embassies/higher education institutes, selected by the students. Thomas Tharakan, chief financial officer of the technology firm, said, "If the university searches for the document manually, it may take little more time. If the documents are digitally available with the university, it can be done within a day." Since the verification process in institutes of higher education in the country are not stringent, the system is more useful for admissions to overseas universities. The verified document will remain in the student's personal account and can be accessed multiple times.

Vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh said, "Many institutes are part of it but we will be the first major university to adopt the technology. We will start it on a pilot basis and then extend to all students. It will be an initiative in support of the Centre's Digital India campaign." He added, "This will ease many issues related to documents, especially those we attribute to human error. Students will spend very little time getting their documents authenticated a cheaper."

Source: The Times of India dated 9 December, 2015

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mumbai-Univ-students-can-soon-create-bank-of-verified-documents/articleshow/50097338.cms