To check forgery, PU to give degrees with bar codes

Waterproof, non-tearable, bar-coded and a sheet with security thread and micro printing. These are some of the features of the academic degrees, which will be given to the students at the Panjab University’s annual convocation in March.  

Over 900 students of Panjab University having pursued their graduation, PhDs and MPhils will be honoured on the annual convocation. Also, 80,000 students who have completed studies from PU and its affiliated colleges will be honoured with such degrees, on which PU has already printed Quick Response (QR) codes on the upper left corner. 

Controller of examination (CoE), Panjab University, Professor Parvinder Singh, said the project has been initiated to crack down on the issue of fake degree certificates and also to make the degree verification process easier. 

“Although, we have not received any such case of fake degree certificates on the campus, there are cases elsewhere. We need to be cautious,” said Professor Singh. 

He added, “This project is not much different to HRD’s move to provide digital degrees. With these degrees having QR codes, the university and the college authorities will be able to verify them by scanning the code. Also, the students can click their respective QR codes to keep them in their phones and whenever required, they can get their degrees verified from the campus by showing that code in the phone.” 

Professor Singh said the degree has some hidden security features as well, which can give details of the students’ enrolment number, date of exam or the exams taken, etc. 

Professor Singh said three times the amount has been spent this year on designing certificates as compared to last year. “If we hiked the examination fees, we are giving the students back with newly designed degrees.” 

One of the officials at the PU examination branch even shared that the degree certificates will be pink in colour and even the border lines have security features. Officials further said that 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. 

Controller of examination, Panjab University also said that soon, the students will also be able to apply online for the verification and after the convocation, their details will be uploaded online.