Verifier Frequently Asked Questions

What is MyCreds™| MesCertif™?

MyCreds™ is a secure online service that allows organizations to issue secure digital records online so that individuals can access and share their transcripts, academic documents, badges, credentials and micro-credentials from their post-secondary studies in Canada.

MyCreds™ is a national initiative led by the Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC). Its members include the recognized post-secondary colleges, universities, institutes and other trusted third party organizations across Canada that work in partnership to support student mobility into, between, and beyond studies in Canada. A document or credential that comes from an issuing member of the Canadian MyCreds™ family through the network is verifiable, official and supported by digital signatures.

What certified online records can I get through MyCreds™?

Digital transcripts, credentials, micro-credentials, badges, letters and other official academic documents are all available to students and graduates of MyCreds™-enabled education providers. The education provider decides which document types they issue on MyCreds™.

Who uses MyCreds™?

Many higher education institutions across Canada use MyCreds™ to issue their secure academic documents. For a list of issuing organizations and education providers in Canada, visit the MyCreds™ Member Directory.

How does it work?

Vetted institutions and organizations who sign up for MyCreds™ are provided with a means to issue digitally certified documents and data to their students/graduates/customers/members. Individuals then receive their certified documents via the MyCreds™ portal. From there, individuals can view and share their records with third parties online, controlling who can see their records, and for how long. Third parties can use our service to receive and verify records in a variety of ways.

How do I verify someone's credentials?

The student/graduate is in control of their records and who they share them with.

Ask the student/graduate to share their record with you by sending you a link to their document via MyCreds™. Through this link you can view and verify their record.

Can I verify the credentials from (a group of) individuals directly through MyCreds™ verify?

Not at this stage. Work is underway to enable this in the future. Further details will be published here when this becomes available.

How do I receive or request digital documents?

You can ask a student or graduate to share their documents with you via email. The student will then create a share, i.e. generate a unique link that points to their document and share that link with you in one of two ways:

1. Send the link to your email address via the MyCreds™ system
2. Copy the generated URL and paste it into a personal email or other sharing medium that they will then send to you

To view the document, you may be required to enter the email address to which the share was sent, or to enter a PIN, depending on the restrictions that the student, applicant or graduate has specified. (The PIN will be communicated to you separately by the student.)

The student controls who they share their documents with and for how long. However, they have no control over content and cannot alter the document in any way.

Additionally, if your organization anticipates a high volume of received digital documents from students in support of an application process, consider working with us to set up your own designated inbox which will allow you to view and organize shared documents via the MyCreds™ network. Please contact us for more details at info@aruccnationalnetwork.ca.

I’m interested in my organization becoming a Designated Receiver on MyCreds™. Who do I contact?

Contact us at info@aruccnationalnetwork.ca.

How secure are digital documents?

Employing advanced security and operational procedures, MyCreds™ documents are authentic, tamper evident, and legally valid. The underlying systems have been independently tested by security experts and documents contain digital signatures that meet the legal standards set by the Canadian postsecondary institutions and the European Union for authentic electronic documents.

Only vetted organizations on the MyCreds™ network are permitted to upload and certify digital documents. The documents from these organizations are guaranteed when accessed online via the MyCreds™ portal. While students and graduates have access to view and share documents, only the issuing organization can upload or modify them.

The specific features to look for to ensure authenticity of the documents are described under How do I ensure the document is authentic?

How do I ensure the document is authentic?

There are several ways to do this:

1. Ensure the URL of the site that you have been directed to starts with the following: https://learner.mycreds.ca/. Access a link sent directly to you by the student or from the MyCreds™ platform. In either case the document has been issued by a vetted organization, not a third party, and the student cannot alter the content of the document.
2. Examine the document status which should say Available, not Revoked.
3. Check that the document has the Certified blue ribbon icon.
4. Review the certificate information that comes with the document.
5. Read about the institute that issued the document directly in MyCreds™ under issuer information.

That’s it.

The MyCreds™ application, itself, will verify details of the signing certificate that has been used to authenticate the document you are viewing. Once a document is marked as Certified on the MyCreds™ site, NO FURTHER VERIFICATION is required on the part of the verifier.

However, if you would like to view greater details of the certificate chain, you can do so by viewing the digital certificate details in an external PDF reader. To do this, download the PDF and open up the document with Adobe Reader version 9 or later to view the certificate chain and signing certificate details.

Real Time Verification: When a verifier views the document on the MyCreds™ network, this is a real time event; the document is retrieved from the MyCreds™ database and displayed to you, the verifier, at the time of verifying the document.

What do I see if the document is not valid?

If the document has been revoked, the share expiry date lapsed, or the share disabled by the student, the document verification failure will display.

If the document has been tampered with or altered in any way since it was signed, again, the document verification result will display clearly as failed.

Should you enter an incorrect email address or PIN where these are required, you will see a prompt to review the data you have entered. This is not an indication of verification failure.

Can I trust a printed copy?

MyCreds™ documents can only be guaranteed when viewed online. You should not trust the authenticity of printed format documents unless it is a certified hard copy issued directly by the education provider. When a student or graduate presents a printed copy of a digital MyCreds™ document, you should request that it is re-issued to you in a digital format as set out in How do I receive or request digital documents?

Can I print the digital copies?

You will be able to print the digital documents.

When printed, the document has no authentic status, will not be tamper evident, and will not contain the security features of the online or PDF digital versions.