Since January 2021, Montpellier Business School graduates have received a digital version of their diploma, a Digital Credential issued with the BCdiploma solution.
After almost two years of use, we spoke with Oscar Castellana, Head of the Student Administration Department, to take stock of this innovation, known in the higher education world as Digital Credentials. Interview conducted in September 2022 by Luc Jarry-Lacombe.
Why did MBS identify a need for Digital Credentials?
Oscar Castellana – Montpellier Business School has more than 4,000 students, including about 2,500 in the Master’s program. Until 2020, the graduation process was paper-based and very time-consuming. In addition, students had to wait up to 9 months between graduation and receiving their paper diploma. This is a difficult situation for our students when they have to apply for a job and show their credential that they are not going to receive any time soon. Meeting BCdiploma was the trigger: we seized the opportunity to modernize our processes and, above all, to provide an additional service to our students.
How did the deployment of Digital Credentials at MBS go?
Oscar Castellana – In short: very quickly. The Digital Credentials solution, BCdiploma, was easy to learn, with a structured deployment method and a pre-production environment that allowed for as many tests as required. As a result, my team of 7 school administrators can generate the digital credentials and send them by email to the graduates with only three clicks… in complete autonomy and the day after the graduation jury. Today, we use Digital Credentials for all four of our degree programs.
Digital Credential example
Using a unique URL link, students can access their digital credentials containing all the necessary information to demonstrate their credentials and share it with recruiters, companies and even on social media.
Click here to access an example of a Digital Credential issued by MBS.
How did students react to the Digital Credentials?
Oscar Castellana – They were thrilled and… those who have not yet graduated are asking for it! We were glad to see the digital credentials being shared on LinkedIn: it creates a positive dynamic and image. We are proud to provide an innovative service of immediate use that reinforces the employability of our graduates, especially internationally thanks to the multilingual English/French version.
About the author
Luc Jarry-Lacombe, founder and CEO of BCdiploma, is an expert in blockchain and its applications in education and the public sector. With Vincent Langard, Luc wrote the international patent “Systems and computer-based methods of document certification and publication”. Luc is a regular speaker on blockchain and new digital identity standards.