Registering your university

Your university issues degrees on certo from an organisation account of its own. Setting it up takes a few minutes. certo then checks the university before anything is issued in its name.

Sign up

1. Go to certo.bio/sign-up and choose University.
2. Enter your address at the university. We send a six-digit code to it; there is no password.
3. Type the university's name. certo looks it up in its company directory first. If Northgate University is already on certo, you ask to join it and one of its owners lets you in, so a university is never registered twice.
4. Choose the country and confirm.

When your address is on the university's own domain, you become the owner of the account straight away. When it is not, for example a personal address, certo checks that you can act for the university by hand first.

Waiting for certo

Once you have signed up, the console says Waiting for certo. A person at certo checks the university and files its issuer agreement, usually within a working day. You get an e-mail when it is done, or if certo cannot approve it, with the reason.

While you wait, you can add your team and complete your profile. Nothing is issued until certo approves: the Issue and invite button stays off and says why.

The issuer agreement

certo signs a degree as a certificate only for an organisation that has an issuer agreement. For a university, the agreement is filed when certo approves the sign-up; there is no separate form to send. Your Company profile shows it under Kept by certo, with the date it was signed.

Complete your profile

Graduates read your university's name, logo and description on the e-mail that hands over their degree, so issuing opens only once the profile is complete. On Company profile, fill in:

• the name people know (the legal name stays as registered)
• a square logo
• the country
• the website
• a description of at least one real sentence

The Issuing page shows what is still missing.

Add the registry number

An owner or admin adds the university's registry number on Company profile:

1. Pick the register. Your country's registers come first, then international ones such as the LEI. If yours is not listed, choose Another register and enter its code.
2. Type the number as the register prints it.
3. Send it to certo.

certo checks the number against the register before it is kept. Issuing opens once it is. While the check runs, the Issuing page says certo is checking the company's registry number.

The number matters because certo signs it into every certificate you issue. Anyone checking one of your graduates' degrees sees Issuer's registry number on the certificate's page and can look the university up in the register. Once kept, only certo changes it: an owner or admin can ask for a change, with a reason.

Before your first batch

Then send your first graduate batch.