Malaysian education ministry and universities team up to fight fake degrees using blockchain

Malaysia’s Ministry of Education (MoE) last week announced the setting up of a blockchain-focused university consortium and the launch of an “e-Scroll” system – a university degree issuance and verification system based on blockchain technology.

The ministry noted that Malaysian universities receive thousands of requests globally to verify their genuine graduates. However, the current verification system is largely done via emails or telephone, which contributes to its inefficiency.

To address this issue, the MADICT (Council of ICT Deans) and the education ministry proposed to use the blockchain technology which is believed to be secured and has the potential to increase the efficiency in authenticating genuine certificate.

On these lines, the ministry has proposed the formation of a Consortium of Universities on blockchain technology to study its adoption and to eventually develop the system. According to the official release, the initial members are UUM, the International Islamic University (IIUM), UMS, UMT, UTM and UITM. IIUM has been appointed as the current Head of the Consortium.

“The main objective behind the formation of the Consortium is to spread skills training and development of the technology among the university students and academics. In the long run, the Consortium should also be able to offer industry standard blockchain-based solutions which has the potential to generate revenue for the member universities,” it said.

About the e-Scroll system, the ministry said that the current system has been developed by a team from the IIUM and leverages the NEM blockchain. The process involves scanning of a QR code printed on the degree certificate. The verification can be done from anywhere in the world and takes only a few seconds.

In the project’s first phase, all PhD students who graduated from IIUM on November 10 will have their degree certificates embedded into the blockchain.

The ministry is encouraging other universities and institutions of higher education in the country to join the consortium.