Some students may submit the required certified documents of their non-Dutch previous education digitally.
A certified digital document is an electronic copy of a student’s degree certificate, academic transcript or other graduation document, the content and authenticity of which can be securely and reliably verified.
A certified digital document contains the following details:
In general, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam currently recognizes and accepts certified digital documents to process the verification of the previous education.
Please note: Due to security reasons, we do not accept sharing systems that requires the VU Amsterdam to create an account.
The documents need to be sent as PDF file in the following ways:
Certified digital documents can be sent to admissiondocuments@vu.nl.
Please note that your digital documents can only be shared as described above, after your admission has been evaluated by VU Amsterdam and you have been informed about your admission. Documents sent in any other format than PDF-file will not be processed.
If the authenticity of your digital document needs to be verified on the website of the issuing educational institution, we are only able to do so if the instructions are in one of the following languages: Dutch, English, French, German or Spanish.
Are you submitting a document written in another language? Then you must also submit additional translations in Dutch or English by a sworn/certified translator. The documents need to be sent as plain PDF files and can be submitted as follows:
Are you unsure whether your digital documents meet the above requirements? Please submit them regardless. We will review the documents, and get back to you if we are unable to accept them.
If you completed your higher education in one of the countries listed down below, we can accept your digital documents for reviewing. Please make sure to read the relevant section for more information and guidelines.
No rights can be derived from the information on this page. The final decision on admission will always be determined by VU Amsterdam. We have the right to reject a document at any time, or to ask for a certified hard copy.
If you obtained your degree at Universität Wien, we can accept digital graduation documents if they were digitally signed by WU and their authenticity can be verified by uploading the document on the website of the university.
If you obtained your degree at KU Leuven, we can accept digitally issued graduation statements and transcripts that include an online verification code.
If you obtained your degree in China, we only accept the CSSD Verification Report in English as digital proof of your diploma.
Type of documents we accept:
We accept German degree certificates and transcripts if the authenticity and content of the document can be verified on the website of the issuing university. In most cases, the digitally issued document will include a verification code or a verification link with a password. If the verification only confirms that the document was issued by the university in question but does not display its content, that is not sufficient.
If you obtained your degree at University College Dublin, we can accept your digital documents if they contain verification instructions and you have enabled verification of your documents through your SISWeb account.
If you obtained your degree at another institution in Ireland, we accept digital graduation documents shared with us through Digitary.
If you obtained your degree at the University of Bologna, we can accept a digital degree certificate and academic transcript if the document carries a valid digital stamp from the university.
If you obtained your degree at Universidade de Coimbra, we can accept digital academic documents if they can be verified using the university’s Academic Document Authenticity Verification Service.
We accept electronic academic certificates from Spanish institutions if they can be verified on the institution’s website using a verification code.
At the moment, we are aware of the following universities that use this verification system: Universidad de la Laguna, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Universitat de Barcelona
If you obtained your degree at an institution in the United Kingdom, we recommend you share your Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) with us using a secure electronic system. Your HEAR is sufficient proof of both your diploma and transcript.
We accept electronic HEARs sent either through your university’s own electronic system or through a third party such as Digitary or GradIntelligence.
The IB provides an official transcript of grades for the Diploma Programme (DP). It is an official copy of an IB candidate’s results. Transcripts can be sent directly to VU Amsterdam.
Cambridge can provide universities with access to their secure website, Cambridge International Direct, so they can view and verify students’ results online.
Please contact the Student Desk.
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