Certificates, transcripts and verifications FAQs

When you complete your degree and have requested your award documents, you'll receive an award certificate (parchment), and, where applicable, a transcript listing the modules you passed during your studies, and the mark and credit level for each module. Not all courses are given a certificate alongside their transcript; contact your Faculty Student Centre to see if this applies to you.

Your award certificate is a coloured certificate showing your name, award title, classification, and date of the award. Award classifications include first, upper second, lower second and third for Bachelor’s degrees, and merit and distinction for Postgraduate courses.

Award certificates are printed on watermarked parchment paper with the University crest and signed by the Vice-Chancellor. Your transcript lists the modules you passed during your studies, and the mark and credit level for each module. You’ll be given a certificate and transcript for each course you have been awarded for.

If you require a Diploma Supplement, access the Diploma Supplement booklet.

Students will receive an email to request their award documents after their Exam Board has taken place and once their award has been confirmed. Once you have requested your certificate and transcript via your MySRS portal or by contacting our Certificates team, production can take up to 10 working days after date of request. You will receive an email once your documents have been posted.

Delivery to a UK address may take an additional 10 working days. For international deliveries, DHL will confirm an estimated delivery date directly with you.

Award documents posted to UK addresses will not receive a tracking reference. International deliveries will include a tracking reference and regular text updates.

Delivery times can vary depending on the country this is being delivered to, as some checks need to be made once your award documents have reached customs.

Both DHL and Royal Mail will attempt to deliver your award documents up to three times. If delivery is unsuccessful after these attempts, the documents will be returned directly to the University.

If your award documents have been damaged during delivery, please contact our certificates team, and visit the reprinting page for more advice.

If you have misplaced your award documents, you can request replacements. If we are able to verify your original award from Birmingham City University, we will be able to issue you with a replacement document or a letter of verifications depending on how long ago you achieved your award.

If you require a replacement certificate, please complete the online form on the replacement certificate page. If you require a replacement transcript, please complete the online form on the replacement transcript page.

Students will not be charged for their original certificate and transcript, including postage.

However, if you have lost or damaged your award documents, reprints of these will incur a fee. Visit our replacement certificate page and/or replacement transcript page for more information.

As standard, the name printed on your degree certificate must match the official record held by the University on the student record system. It is your responsibility to ensure the name on your record is correct and we cannot amend or add names once an award has been agreed by an exam board.

If your name is incorrect and your award is yet to be presented to an exam board, please contact your Faculty Student Centre for further information.

If you have been awarded and notice a spelling error or duplication in regards to your name, please contact our Certificates team with a scan of your passport. This will be used to correct your student record before your documents have been printed.

If you wish to change your name once you have already received your award documents, please visit our name changes page to check for eligibility.

If you have studied with us through a partner college, you will not receive your award documents as these will be posted directly to your campus to be distributed. If you wish to chase the status of your award documents, please contact your campus.

For digital certificates, you will not automatically receive a digital certificate unless your partner college has granted permission for us to issue one. Digital certificates are issued through Gradintelligence, and they will send you a 30-day activation link to your BCU email address. Should you wish for this link to be sent to your personal email, please ask your campus to make this request on your behalf by providing your personal email address and proof of ID.

If you require a replacement certificate for your pre 1992 award, please use the following contact information:

• CNAA
  The CNAA acted as an awarding body to institutions that did not have their own degree awarding authority (i.e. University status) between the years of 1965-1992. These institutions were usually Polytechnics or Colleges of Arts, Technology or Education. Any awards dated before 1965 or after 1992, are not CNAA awards.
  Email: OUVP-aftercare@open.ac.uk
  Tel: 01908 332852
  Website: Awards and Aftercare Validation Partnerships
  
  
• Pearson
  Assessment & Qualifications is at the centre of the Pearson ecosystem as the natural outcome of any learning activity. Our largest business by revenue and consumer reach. It provides the assessments that enable people to demonstrate their knowledge from school to professional careers.
  Website: Certificate services Pearson qualifications

Recent graduates can self-request a verification letter via the Home page on your MySRS portal. However, if you are a past student, or no longer have access to your MySRS portal please contact our Verifications team.

Visit our verifications page for more information and other verification services we offer.

World Education Services (WES) offer a credential evaluation service. Find out more information about the required documents on the WES website.

Our Verifications team offers this service free of charge. Visit the WES website to gather the information you will need before emailing.

Birmingham City University offers this service for free. Please note we can only certify and attest documents issued by the University, and we cannot certify and attest original documents.

Once your documents have been certified and attested by a member of our Verifications team, we can send these documents to a third party on your behalf.

You can visit our certifying and attesting page for more information.

If you're an overseas student or a graduate wanting to live or work abroad, you may need an Apostille certificate in addition to your parchment. Birmingham City University don't provide this service, but visit the Government website for details on how to retrieve this. You will need to appoint a solicitor to legalise the documents on your behalf.

Birmingham City University is in partnership with HEDD. All third parties must therefore submit their request via the HEDD portal and your request will be responded to within 10 working days. We will require a hand signed declaration from the former student alongside any enquiry from a third-party organization.

Should you encounter any problems or have any queries, please email heddhelp@prospects.ac.uk, including your phone number if you would like a call back.

For more information visit our third party requests page.

Students who have a financial obligation to the University, current or historical, will not receive their award documents or digital certificate. They will also not be given a verification letter confirming their study or award.

To clear your unpaid fees please contact collections@bcu.ac.uk or debt.recovery@bcu.ac.uk.