Securing Degree Certificates While Meeting Modern Student Expectations for the University of Westminster

About the University of Westminster

The University of Westminster is a vibrant and diverse institution that attracts more than 21,000 students from over 160 nations and is ranked 8th in the UK and in the top 50 in the world for ‘International Outlook’ by Times Higher World University Ranking 2024.

Established in 1838 as London’s first polytechnic, the University offers a range of highly attractive practice-based courses that are independently rated as excellent and has a distinguished history of research excellence in areas such as Politics, Media, Art and Design, Architecture, and Biomedical Sciences.

The University is recognised for its outstanding commitment to student success. Ranked number one in London for Student Support in the Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs) 2026, Westminster is committed to helping students succeed both during their studies and after graduation, with a strong focus on student support, employability and career progression.

After facing challenges with inefficient certification processes and increased workload the university sought a secure digital certification and print solution that would enhance document security and better meet the needs of their students and graduates.

Key Outcomes

• Secure digital certificates and transcripts available within 10 days of results publication
• Students can securely share credentials directly with employers and third parties
• Reduced waiting times for printed documents
• Faster access to credentials for employment, further study and visa applications
• Fewer student enquiries and complaints
• Secure digital and printed credentials to meet different student preferences

The Challenge: Delivering Academic Credentials in a Digital-First World

As a university with a large and diverse student population, Westminster understood the importance of providing graduates with timely access to their degree documents. However, traditional, paper-based processes made it difficult to deliver the level of service modern graduates had come to expect

“We used SITS to generate our certificates and transcripts, this method was slow and held up printing.  We were not able to produce true electronic versions of documents, we either had to print documents and then scan them into adobe or create an email version, both were rendered poorly, created additional security risks and could only be used during pandemic conditions.

Processes typically created extra work, they increased the number of emails we received and put additional pressure on our resources due to each email request needing verification.

We realistically could only provide hard-copy documents, these took many days to produce with the service taking longer for new graduates who could expect to receive their documents in the post weeks later.

The Impact of Legacy Degree Certificate Processes

Like many universities, Westminster was experiencing growing demands from students and graduates who needed access to their academic credentials; however, legacy processes led to high administrative workloads that were difficult to maintain.

“Inefficient working practices- producing in-year graduate documents took 32 to 56 days for the UK and Europe, and 37 to 100 days for international documents (depending on the destination.) This generated enquiries that we could not answer in a reasonable time frame. The workload for document requests always outstripped our staffing resources.”

Modernising Degree Certificates with Digital Certificates® and Blockchain Paper®

The University of Westminster introduced our Digital Certificates® solution and Blockchain Paper® to enhance the security of their documents and processes and deliver a better credential service – giving students faster access to their achievements while continuing to offer secure hard-copy documents for those who need them.

Westminster’s Experience working with Advanced Secure Technologies

“Very positive, Advance Secure Technologies worked well with the many departments required for us to develop and launch the new service. Meetings were regular as promised, and support was available outside the agreed schedule when needed. There were difficulties to overcome as expected with a large project, but the Advanced Team was always willing to meet and help us find solutions that suited our needs and budget.”

Measurable Improvements for Students and Administration Teams

After implementing our secure certification solutions, the University of Westminster experienced a range of benefits across its key stakeholders including:

Excellent student and graduate experience

“True digital versions of our degree certificates and transcripts can be shared directly from the Digital Certificates® platform with third parties by the student. This prevents complaints and enquiries from new graduates needing their documents to move on to the next phase in their lives, reducing inbox traffic for my team which has other responsibilities and services to deliver alongside certification.”

Fast digital publication and reduced workload

Digital publication timescales are incredibly fast, 10 days from the publication of results. It could be faster, but we wait one week for late awards and amendments before publishing the award documents. The work to move the data from SITS into Digital Certificates® Solution and publish takes 2 days.

We need only 1 member of the team to complete the work. Under the old system, we could only print hard-copy documents and this took 18 days (not including postal delivery times, which was just to print everything) and required 4 members of my small team full-time for that period, to the detriment of our other services.

Enhanced security for digital and printed degree documents

Hard-copy documents print faster from the Digital Certificates® system, 6 days for a full set and require 2 team members to complete. The adoption of Blockchain Paper® offers an added level of security, with advanced verification and high-level security features that confirm the authenticity of our secure certificate papers. This is an improvement over our previous certificate papers which did not have this level of security.

Efficient printing processes for secure printed degree documents

“Digital Certificates®  Solution auto-collates our papers, including an address label, cover letter, transcript, and certificate, all printed on different stock, which has led to significant time savings for our printing process. The papers are collated for each student, making the enveloping process quick. In light of our varied and global student body, we are really pleased to offer both secure digital and secure hardcopy versions of our students’ awards and achievements to meet diverse student needs while providing a modern, efficient service that supports graduates as they move into employment, further study, and professional status”

By combining secure digital credentials with high-quality secure printed certificates and transcripts, the University of Westminster is able to meet expectations of today’s students. Graduates can access, share and verify their achievements more easily, while the University benefits from enhanced security, greater efficiency and reduced administrative workload.

About Advanced Secure Technologies

Since 2004, Advanced Secure Technologies has worked to STOP FRAUD for our customers. We lead the way in best practices and set a global standard for Secure Paper and Secure Digital Certificates. Our holistic approach to developing secure certification solutions features multiple layers of security across the issuing process. This ensures our customers remain ahead of the fraud risk. As a result, our innovative and high-security solutions protect the integrity of documents issued while safeguarding the reputation of over 200 education institutes worldwide.