Preparing and sending a graduate batch
Paste or type your list of graduates, check every row, and issue their degrees with one send from the Issuing page.
5 minute read
A graduate batch is the list of people your university has awarded a degree. Each row becomes a degree record confirmed at source by the university, a passport waiting for that graduate, and an e-mail inviting them to claim it. You send it from Issuing, under Record the graduates.
Before you start
The Issue and invite button stays off, and says why, until:
- certo has approved the university (Registering your university)
- the company profile is complete
- certo has checked and kept the university's registry number
- the account holds a sponsorship for every new graduate on the list (Graduate sponsorships)
Only owners, admins and issuers can send a batch.
Step 1: what you are recording
Record is set to Education for a university. Keep it there: an education row is what makes a graduate, and each graduate is one sponsorship, once.
Legal basis is optional. The hint in the console describes it: the document this record stands in for in your market.
Step 2: the people
You can paste the list or type it.
Paste. Copy the rows from your student records system or a spreadsheet, a CSV, or plain lines, into Paste your list, then select Read the list. certo reads it into the table below and keeps none of it. Nothing is sent until you confirm the table. A very long list is read in parts: the console tells you when to split it.
Type. Select Type them in instead and fill the table row by row.
Each graduate is one row:
| Column | Required | How to write it |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Yes | The graduate's full legal name, as on their identity document |
| Date of birth | Yes | YYYY-MM-DD |
| Yes | An address the graduate will still read after they leave | |
| Award | Yes | The degree, for example BSc |
| Subject | No | For example Mathematics |
| From | Yes | The month they started, YYYY-MM |
| To | No | The month they finished, YYYY-MM |
Why the date of birth is required
The graduate claims the degree with an identity check, and the name and date of birth it reads have to match what your university recorded. That is what stops a forwarded e-mail from opening somebody else's degree. A date that could be read two ways, such as 03/04/2001, is refused with Could be read two ways: write YYYY-MM-DD, because a wrong guess would lock the graduate out.
Use the name as it appears on the graduate's identity document. A shortened or former name will not match their check.
Check every row
The table marks each problem in its cell before anything is sent: Required, Not an e-mail address, Already on an earlier row, Ends before it starts, and so on. An address with anything like a + before the @ is refused: one address is one account on certo.
Above the button you see how many rows are ready, how many need fixing, and This batch costs a sponsorship per graduate, beside the balance. A graduate your university issued a degree to before is not counted again.
Send
Select Issue and invite. Each row then shows its outcome:
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Issued | The record is made and the graduate's e-mail is on its way. |
| Issued before | This exact row went out in an earlier send and its link still works. Nothing is made twice and no sponsorship is spent. |
| Corrected | The row replaces an earlier one for the same graduate that was not claimed yet. Same passport, a new link, no sponsorship. |
| New link sent | This exact row went out before, but its link ran out unclaimed. A new link went out, free. |
| Already claimed | The graduate already claimed the earlier row, so nothing changed and nothing was charged. See Correcting a row. |
| Not issued | Something went wrong for that row. Fix it and send the list again. |
Correcting a row
A wrong date of birth, a misspelt name, a wrong award or an address that bounced: fix the row and send it again, on its own or in the whole list. certo recognises the same graduate when the row has the same e-mail address, or the same name and date of birth, and is about the same degree (the years overlap).
While the graduate has not claimed it, the corrected row replaces the earlier one:
- the degree is corrected on the passport your batch already started, never a second passport
- the earlier link stops working, and the graduate gets a new e-mail saying it replaces the first
- no sponsorship is spent: a graduate is paid for once
Once the graduate has claimed it, the record is theirs and may already be a signed certificate, so a batch never changes it. The row shows Already claimed and nothing is charged. To correct a claimed degree, write to certo at support@certo.bio with the graduate's e-mail address and what should change.
A second degree for the same graduate, such as a master's after a bachelor's, does not overlap the first: it is issued as a record of its own, and it costs no sponsorship either.
What each graduate receives
An e-mail from your university through certo, headed with the degree your university confirmed, and a button to claim their passport. It tells them:
- the degree goes on their own certo passport, to share with any employer
- their first year is free: your university pays for their identity check and the checks of the rest of their history
- they check their identity once, with a document and a selfie, to claim it
What happens next is in How graduates claim their degree.