What employers see, and how anyone verifies a degree

Once a graduate has claimed their passport, the degree your university confirmed is a line on it, marked Verified. It is the graduate's passport: they decide who reads it. Your university does not.

What a stranger sees

The graduate's public page shows the degree like every other line they publish. It does not show who confirmed it or how. That detail is for the employers the graduate approves.

What an approved employer sees

An employer the graduate approves sees the full record, line by line. On the degree, they see that your university confirmed it and exactly what it confirmed: the award, the subject and the dates you sent in the batch.

Anything the graduate added themselves and nobody confirmed stays marked Claimed, on the same passport, so the employer can tell your confirmation from the graduate's own words.

While the year your sponsorship paid for runs, every employer the graduate approves reads their passport free, without spending a sponsorship.

The certificate

certo signs your university's confirmation as a certificate in your university's name. The certificate states what was confirmed, and that scope is part of what is signed, not a description added beside it.

It also carries the registry number certo checked for your university, so a reader can look the university up in the register. That is why issuing waits for the number (Registering your university).

How anyone verifies it

Every certificate has its own page, at certo.bio/v/ followed by the certificate's id. The graduate can share it, and employers they approve reach it from the degree on their passport. Anyone with the address can open it, without an account and without asking your registrar.

The page answers one question first: This certificate is genuine and current, with what was checked:

• Signature valid: signed with certo's published keys
• Not revoked: looked up in certo's status list

Below that, it shows who confirmed the degree and when, its details, and Issuer's registry number.

Is this the person in front of you?

The verification page never shows the graduate's name to a stranger. A reader who is handed the certificate types the name on the document in front of them, and certo answers yes or no: Yes. This certificate was issued under that name. or No. This certificate was issued under a different name.

Checking without certo

A verifier who does not want to trust certo's page can download the signed certificate and check it themselves: verify the signature against certo's public keys and look it up in the status list. Fetching the status list reveals nothing about which certificate is being checked. None of it needs certo's permission.

When a certificate stops verifying

If a certificate is revoked, its page says This certificate was revoked, with the date, and tells the reader not to rely on it. Revocation is permanent. It stops the document verifying; it cannot delete a copy somebody already downloaded.

An owner, admin or issuer of your university can revoke a certificate it issued: on Issuing, under the graduate's invitation, choose Revoke certificate and give a reason. The graduate is e-mailed your reason. Anyone checking the certificate reads that its issuer revoked it, and on which day, but never why. Your confirmation of the degree goes with it, so the passport shows the degree as Claimed.

Revoking withdraws a certificate; it does not correct it. If a record your university issued is wrong, see How graduates claim their degree.