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TAMK's first electronic degree certificates issued on 31 January

Published on 1.2.2022
Tampere University of Applied Sciences
Punainen ruusu
Electronic degree certificates are an objective of the Digivisio 2030 project of higher education institutions. They offer many benefits.

A total of 22 new professionals graduated from Tampere University of Applied Sciences on 31 January. They were the first TAMK students to receive electronic degree certificates.

Electronic degree certificates are official and original certificates signed by the president.

“From students’ viewpoint, the benefits of electronic degree certificates are that the original documents can be saved in several places, such as a cloud, memory stick and computer. They are all authentic certificates and include the original signature,” says TAMK’s Study Affairs Coordinator Marja Honkanen.

“The value of TAMK’s certificates grows because their authenticity can be checked easier. Nowadays the degree certificate is often needed in an electronic form when applying for a study place or job. It is thus practical that the original certificate is electronic,” she adds.

Graduated students download their electronic degree certificates from the student desktop Pakki. The degree certificates can be found at Orders -> Degree certificates. The certificates can be downloaded in 14 days from the graduation day. During the transition period of the spring semester, graduates may also have a paper copy of their certificates, if they want.

Electronic degree certificates awarded by Tampere University of Applied Sciences fulfil the EU Commission’s highest requirements. “Certificates can be easily verified through the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s validation service using the link embedded in the certificate. It is more difficult to forge electronically signed degree certificates than paper certificates. Recipients can easily check authenticity of electronic degree certificates,” Honkanen says.

The authenticity of electronic certificates can be checked through the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s ”Validate PDF document” service or the document validation service on TAMK’s website.

The transition from paper to electronic degree certificates was prepared last autumn. Other universities of applied sciences’ good experiences were taken into consideration. Lapland University of Applied Sciences and Novia University of Applied Sciences were the first Finnish higher education institutions to introduce electronic degree certificates and gradually other Finnish higher education institutions have followed them. The transition to electronic degree certificates is also a clear step in the Digivisio 2030 project, which aims at developing digitality in higher education institutions.