Universities step up fight against forgery

More than 30 universities and educational institutions in the UAE have taken steps to prevent certificate forgery by adopting a smart chip solution that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) labels to protect these documents. The institutions, as well as the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, have partnered with smart technology solutions company Amricon to implement the Smart Document Attestation Solution. Amricon officials explained that the RFID label is placed on university certificates at the time they are issued to students. The information stored in the labels can be read by the attestation department at the ministry, enabling the verification of certificates using the Smart Document Reader without communicating with the issuing university. This allows more certificates to be attested in a shorter time, as data is captured directly from the certificate into the ministry's systems without the need of manual input. Amricon CEO Mousa Al Amiri said the smart chip technology "has eliminated the risk of certificate forgery and accelerated procedures. Our Smart solution was adopted by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in its attempt to automate processes and reduce paper-based transactions." Dr Mohammad Gedi, Dean of Admissions at Ajman University of Science and Technology, said it is imperative that the Smart chip solution is circulated among other institutions and large companies to ensure authenticity of certificates and speed up transactions. From / Gulf News