The Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) and the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) became the first Federal Higher Education Institutions to issue and register digital diplomas for their undergraduate courses. The service used is the National Education and Research Network (RNP), the only one in the country approved by the Ministry of Education (MEC).

According to UFMS, digital diplomas will be issued to all 1,544 graduates who graduated at the end of this year, in ceremonies held virtually between 12/9 and 12/16. Physical diplomas issued prior to this date remain valid. At UFV, 800 undergraduate degrees will be registered in 2021. 

To issue diplomas digitally, it is mandatory to comply with the digital certification guidelines of the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure (ICP-Brasil) standard, as it guarantees the authenticity, integrity, reliability, availability, traceability and legal and national validity of the document. 

According to UFMS IT manager and administrative coordinator of RNP's Point of Presence in Mato Grosso do Sul (PoP-MS), Luciano Gonda, UFMS digital diplomas use two ICP-Brasil resources: Signature with Digital Certificate and Time stamp.
According to Gonda, in an interview with the UFMS portal, the Digital Diploma service uses encryption techniques that make fraud attempts difficult. 

“The signature with the ICP-Brasil Digital Certificate works similar to a signature with a notarized signature. The digital signature guarantees, among other things, that the signature on the document is really the person named in it”, explained Gonda to UFMS. “The Time Stamp is used to guarantee the validity of the document on the date and time it is being signed, and to guarantee the validity of the document for a certain period of time. Both Digital Signature and Time Stamp use already established and secure encryption techniques” he said.

At UFV, the university's dean, Demétrius David, celebrated the delivery as a milestone in digital transformation. “It brings benefits to society, which can have immediate and free access to the document, as well as to the country's educational structure, which gains in efficiency in its processes and in its governance”, he declared.

About the Digital Diploma service

The Digital Diploma enables the issuance, registration, validation and preservation of digital diplomas, in compliance with MEC standards and registered in blockchain. In addition, it is the solution chosen by the largest qualified public universities. This means relying on a native and easily integrable process to ensure peace of mind, security and agility in implementation and use.

The Digital Diploma service is available in the NasNuvens ecosystem. To speak with a consultant and take this facility to your institution, go to nasnuvens.rnp.br.

Source: UFMS, with information from RNP.