A first: PU digital degree from this session

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 23

Panjab University is the first one in India to adopt the HRD Ministry’s and the UGC’s initiative of a digital locker for all academic degrees of students.

Christened ‘National Academic Depository’ (NAD), it will enable digital degrees for all and eliminate the tedious process of verification of academic records. In a nation-wide awareness event held at PU today, representatives of universities from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, J&K, New Delhi and Chandigarh were present. Nisar Ahmad Mir, Joint Secretary, UGC, in his address said: “The project will begin from the 2017-18 session and NAD will be formally be launched by the prime minister in the second week of July.”

The digital locker, which will be handled by two depositories, CVL and NDML, will provide storage, retrieval and verification of academic awards once a student registers on it. While its services will be free of cost till September 2019, they will be chargeable after that. The HRD Ministry’s national steering committee will thus review and oversee its work and keep a check on its pricing.

The most important aspect is that this digital locker will verify all the records automatically. When a person will seek admission or employability, the institute or organisation will not have to go through the tedious job of verifying his academic certificates. If uploaded on NAD, it will be the issuing authority that will be responsible for its accuracy. However, if needed, the student will have the option of demanding a certificate print as well. Students will either have to obtain a NAD ID or link their Aadhaar number for authenticity and enabling uploading of his documents and awards.

This will also check fake universities in the country as the UGC will upload the names of all valid ones. The privacy of a student’s documents will be ensured as only he will have access to them. In case anyone wants to access his records, he will have the power to allow or reject it. The service will be available 24x7 and it is claimed to be theft and tamper proof.

The UGC will settle disputes if any and is the authorised implementing body. It has entered into an agreement with the NDML and the CVL for the same. However, an institution and its students along with verifiers will have to register themselves on NAD to avail the services. The NDML and the CVL will provide free training to participating institutes who will have to appoint a nodal officer for the same.