EBSI projects
Formal Accreditation and Recognition
Facilitating the issuance, recognition, and acceptance of digital student university certificates to enable their cross-border use.
The vision
This project is represented by 12+ universities and 2+ organisations from Spain, Switzerland, and Greece.
Together, the Greek Ministry of Education, the Greek University Network (GUNet), and the University of Lausanne are working on the future of formal accreditation in Europe by enabling students with degrees to apply seamlessly to education programmes in the same field but at other national or European universities.
Public Administrations
University Alliance
Universities
IT Providers
Formal Accreditation and Recognition
Participating countries:
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Universities: (Issuers of educational credentials)
Wallet providers:
Infrastructure:
The challenge
Applying to universities across Europe is challenging.
Students already holding degrees increasingly pursue cross-university postgraduate learning experiences to customise their study plans and better achieve their goals. However, applying to foreign universities often involves navigating time-consuming administrative and verification processes to authenticate student diplomas and transcripts of records. Students typically send physical (paper) copies of diplomas and transcripts of records or employ a private-sector third party to present and authenticate a digital version of their credentials. These procedures are costly, time-consuming, prone to errors, and susceptible to fraud.
The opportunity
Web3 has the potential to revolutionise higher education application processes.
Web3 facilitates the seamless issuance, presentation, and verification of diploma and transcript of records credentials without data protection risks, reducing student application hurdles and help European educational institutions strengthen the acceptance and popularity of verifiable credential solutions.
To assist students in managing their cross-university, cross-national, or cross-border applications at foreign universities, a Web3-enabled presentation and verification infrastructure for educational credentials brings together three main technologies:
- Digital Wallets: used by students and universities to receive, store, and send credentials on the move.
- Verifiable Credentials: for formatting, presenting, and exchanging credential data in a machine-friendly way.
- Blockchain: for delivering a highly secure, resilient, and decentralised way of verifying credential information.
The project
Enhancing the foundations of a new education exchange infrastructure using EBSI.
Leveraging the power of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), the project aims to enhance the foundations of the digital infrastructure needed for a seamless cross-institution learning experience. The vision is to create a presentation and verification platform using eDiplomas to achieve cross-university education mobility. The project unites the Greek Ministry of Education, the Greek University Network (GUNet), a Swiss accreditation authority, and the University of Lausanne to achieve this.
EBSI allows the Formal Accreditation and Recognition project to design, build, and operate the next generation of decentralised services. The objective of this project is to enhance the student experience by allowing them to:
- Seamlessly request the issuance of Diploma and Transcript of Records credentials from issuer universities.
- Receive and hold credentials in a personal digital wallet.
- Apply to another university using the credentials and have them verified instantly and autonomously by the receiving university.
The scenario
Discover the scenarios.
1. Claiming a bachelor's degree and transcript of records.
Tim is a bachelor's student from a university that is part of the GUNet alliance (GR), which includes every university across Greece. Once Tim is ready to graduate from his program, he visits the eDiplomas digital wallet using his mobile device.
- He digitally authenticates his identity through the eDiplomas identification verification portal and 1 requests the issuance of a Bachelor's Degree and Transcript of Records credentials, in this case from the University of Greece.
- The university 2 issues the verifiable credentials representing the educational certificates.
- The platform redirects Tim to his personal eDiplomas digital wallet where he can now 3 store a copy of the credentials.
2. Applying for a master's degree.
Next, Tim wishes to apply for a master’s degree at the University of Lausanne (CH), a university in partnership with the GUNet alliance. The application form on the university website asks Tim to provide credentials that prove he has completed a relevant bachelor’s degree.
- Tim gives consent from his personal digital wallet to 4 present his credentials to the programme's application form.
- The University of Lausanne application platform is then able to automatically 5 verify against the EBSI ledger the authenticity of the credentials, moving Tim swiftly into the master's following evaluation phase.
The project plan
Current implementation stage and plan.
Next steps
Mobilisation of the ecosystem is key to driving adoption.
Achieving this unified student experience demands a strategic and operational paradigm shift, mobilising a vast ecosystem involving legal entities, ministries, and students. The creation of a cohesive digital infrastructure for Formal Accreditation and Recognition necessitates common guidelines, including a new identification system and authentication service for seamless inter-university diploma applications.
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