Quest International University Perak (QIUP) is set to become one the first universities in the world to issue blockchain-based academic certificates.
Developed by Computer Science students from the Faculty of Integrative Sciences and Technology under the guidance of Mr. Tay Yen Pei, senior lecturer at QIUP, the implementation of blockchain-based academic certificate inherits the secured and tamper-proof nature of the blockchain technology, aiming to prevent forgery of academic certificates.
Mr. Nicholas Goh, Chief Operating Officer of QIUP said that this move is in line with the University Council Chairman, Dato’ Sri Dr. Vijay Eswaran’s vision for QIUP to stay at the forefront of technology.
”Harnessing the power of blockchain, the authenticity of the certificates issued by the university can be verified online. In other words, future employers would be able to verify job applicants’ certificates online within split second.
“Certified true copies are no longer relevant. We have made that history. With this move, we can now empower our students to be custodians of their own credentials. They can now own their records and be able to share them in a secure way with whomever they choose.” said Mr. Goh.
The cohort of 199 graduating students at QIUP’s 3rd convocation ceremony 2017 became the first to receive their certificates in secure digital format in addition to the traditional paper format. The students received their scrolls at the convocation ceremony held at Casuarina@Meru Hotel in Ipoh recently.
The graduation event, was overseen by Chairman of the University Council, Dato Sri Dr. Vijay Eswaran and Menteri Besar of Perak, Dato Seri Diraja Dr. Zambry bin Abdul Kadir.
Last month, Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT) debuted issuance of digital diploma to a selected cohort of 111 graduates using blockchain. Both MIT and Quest International University Perak (QIUP) use the same blockchain technology powered by Blockcerts.
We are at the lightbulb stage of the blockchain. The Google and the Facebook of this crypto-world are probably not born yet. Nevertheless, blockchain applications such as the blockchain academic certificate shows a lot of promise and it can be extended to other domains in the future.
