Imperial College leads the way in verifying postgraduate applicants’ qualifications

@ImperialCollege is providing postgraduate applicants with a quick, free and robust qualification verification service via an online portal.

The new custom-made service, run by Qualification Check, replaces the need for applicants to send original copies of their degree certificates to be checked by the Imperial faculty admissions teams.

After uploading the details of their institution, course and grades onto the portal, applicants receive updates as their institution is contacted and once it has verified the qualification. The verified qualification is then stored in a digital wallet which the applicant can use again for future work and study applications.

Benefits for Imperial and applicants

Imperial makes around 12,000 offers to postgraduate applicants every year. Any offer holder whose previous institution does not offer a secure e-transcript sharing facility can use Qualification Check to verify that they have fulfilled their academic conditions with Imperial.

David Parrott, Head of Admissions, said: “The Qualification Check system has significant benefits for the College admissions teams and for applicants. The new service reduces the risk of fraud and is significantly faster and less labour intensive than checking qualifications by hand. Applicants to Imperial now have a better experience that saves them time, money and the worry that their valuable original certificates may be lost in the post. They also have a lasting record of their verified qualification.”

Bespoke verification checking

Staff from Academic Services have been working with Qualification Check since 2019 to build a system that is unique amongst UK universities.

Nick Foote, Chief Technology Officer at Qualification Check, said: “It has been a pleasure building a bespoke verification product, designed in partnership with Imperial to meet the exact needs of their admissions teams. The result is a robust system that automates the verification of qualifications at source across more than 40,000 institutions and 190 countries.”

Streamlined system

The Qualification Check portal allows faculty admissions staff to filter applicants by faculty and course and to easily see which applicants have had their qualifications verified.

David Gibbon, Admissions Manager for the Business School, said: “The service enables us to update our applicants’ records with the reassurance that Qualification Check has securely verified their qualifications with the awarding institution.”

Having overseas degrees verified through a single online portal means that the turnaround time is now on average five days, compared to up to several weeks when applicants had to post documents to be checked by hand.

Mark Woolley, Admissions Manager for the Faculty of Medicine, said: “The portal is straightforward and intuitive, and I think we provide a better service to our offer holders since using it. It’s easier for us and our applicants, who also benefit from a cost saving as they can now verify their credentials online.”