Sharjah University Deploys Blockchain Technology for Academic Purposes

The University of Sharjah decided to make use of blockchain technology in dealing with top-priority issues, including verifying academic credentials and reducing the prevalence of fake student records.

Project Manager, Innovation & Entrepreneurship HUB at the University of Sharjah Mohamed Al Hemairy said the current process of verifying academic credentials is ridiculous and time-consuming, noting the traditional method lacks several factors. Hemairy pointed out that the current system of issuing and verifying academic degrees is retarded.

Therefore the university collaborated with the Swiss-based BSV blockchain, designed to be tamper-proof, allowing for secure and verifiable transactions and record-keeping, to establish its blockchain system to simplify the academic certification validation process and support academic accreditation of higher education institutions, Hemairy told Cointelegraph.

Through the university’s blockchain, student records stored on the blockchain can be thoroughly reviewed and verified, and the verification process will fail if there is any data discrepancy, he noted, adding all data inside the records will remain preserved forever, and no one will be able to remove or tamper with the recordings.

He underlined that the certificates issued by the registration office at the university would be sent directly to the UAE Ministry of Education via the blockchain network for verification to be approved later through the platform in an effortless process for the students.

“If students want to apply to another university or another job, they just need to provide the link of [their blockchain records], and the university or HR department will just send the verification request, and [the system] will reply to them that verified and application approved,” Hemairy further said.

The blockchain-based platform will be accessible to students who are blind, deaf, and people with special needs in addition to smartphones.

He revealed since announcing the launch of this technology at the university in 2022, the university received several requests from different universities in the UAE, UK, Europe and China to join their public blockchain network.