Receiving your award
Find out what parchments and transcripts are and how to request replacements
Award documents
When you complete your degree, you'll receive your award documents confirming your degree and classification. This is made up of an award certificate (parchment) and a transcript listing the modules you passed during your studies, and the mark and credit level for each module.
Award certificate
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 Bachelors 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 and Academic Registrar.
Transcripts
Your transcript lists the modules you passed during your studies, and the mark and credit level for each module.
Document fraud
In order to reduce the risk of document fraud, we print your documents on specialist paper. More information about the security features of your award documents can be found here.
Certificate paper Transcript paper
Award documents are managed and produced by Student Administration Services.
Receiving your parchment
Award documents will be sent out to the correspondence address on your student record after you have completed your degree and it has been approved by the Board of Examiners. For undergraduate students the Boards takes place in the summer and for postgraduate taught students in the winter.
Your correspondence address is separate to your home or term-time address. Make sure your correspondence address is up-to-date.
Undergraduate students
Award documents for undergraduate students will be available to collect on the day of your graduation ceremony, after the ceremony has taken place. If you are not attending your ceremony, your documents will be posted after all the ceremonies have finished.
Postgraduate students
If you're a postgraduate student completing your studies in September, the exam board for your course may meet between October and mid-December. Award documents issued from these exam boards are posted as soon as possible after the exam board meets. Your department can confirm when the exam board for your programme is due to meet.
The Chair of an exam board has the authority to make award decisions outside of exam board meetings.
Award decisions made at exam boards or by the board Chair outside of summer exam boards and postgraduate exam boards will be sent by post to the correspondence address on your student record.
Students studying with a partner institution
If you completed your degree through one of our collaborative partner arrangements, we will post your parchment and transcript to the partner institution for onward distribution to you, unless otherwise agreed with the partner institution.
Replacement Award Documents
Replacement certificates
If your original certificate is lost or damaged, we can replace it for a fee.
Replacements cost £35 for one certificate and £10 for each additional certificate of the same award ordered at the same time.
You can order a maximum of six copies at once.
We aim to produce replacement parchments within 5 working days. If we receive a high volume of requests, there may be a delay in sending your documentation.
If you apply for a replacement certificate on behalf of someone else, you need written permission from the award holder
Request a Replacement Certificate
Replacement transcript
If your original transcript is lost or damaged, your department can replace it for a fee.
Replacements cost £35 for one transcript and £10 for each additional transcript ordered at the same time. This cost includes postage by Royal Mail Recorded delivery.
You can order a maximum of six transcripts at once.
Complete the replacement transcript form on the online store to request a new transcript.
Request a Replacement Transcript
Verification of award documents
There are a number of different verification services available. Please read the information below to decide which best fits your needs.
Letter of Academic Verification
You can get a letter of verification which acts as proof of your award for free. A letter of verification is different to a replacement parchment/transcript. The letter will be sent to you via email and will include information such as your award data and study dates. For details about your units you'll need a replacement transcript.
Certified copies of original award parchments
You may need to provide a certified copy of your award parchment to companies like educational institutions or governments authorities. This is different to a replacement parchment.
To request a certified copy of your parchment, send a scanned copy of your original parchment to academicverifications@port.ac.uk with a postal address so we can deliver your copy.
Once we receive your parchment we'll check your award and stamp and certify the copy before returning it to you. This service is free of charge.
Credential Evaluation
If you are looking to find out your degree equivalency for further study or employment in the United States or Canada, you will most likely need to get a credential evaluation report. There are a number of organisations that offer this service and you can find a list of organisations here.
World Education Services (WES)
World Education Services (WES) offer a credential evaluation service and you can find more information about the required documents here. Please send scanned copies of the original documents required by WES to academicverifications@port.ac.uk along with your WES reference number. Once we receive your documents we'll check your award and stamp and certify the copy before we upload it to the secure WES portal (please see the diagram below for how this works).
Apostille certificates
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. Details on how to do this can be found on the Foreign and Commonwealth website. You will need to appoint a solicitor to legalise the documents on your behalf.
Visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website
Third party verification requests
If you are a third party requesting a verification for a University of Portsmouth award, this is managed by Prospects Hedd online verification service.
Prospects Hedd is managed by Jisc and has been providing a secure verification service for employers, screening agencies, embassies, councils and other institutions for over 9 years. Verification requests through Prospects Hedd can be made to over 125 UK Higher education institutions.
How to register
To make an enquiry you need to register with Prospects Hedd by visiting www.hedd.ac.uk.
- Select ‘University of Portsmouth’ from the list of UK higher education institutions and choose the option to 'verify a degree award'.
- There is a small charge per enquiry.
- You will also be required to upload a hand signed consent form. Please ensure you adhere to the specific consent requirements before submitting your request as this will result in a delay to your request being actioned. Our consent form template can be found here.
Submitting an enquiry
You’ll need the individual’s name, date of birth, course, qualification, year of graduation and degree result. Dates of attendance will be given alongside the verification response.
To ensure your verification is submitted correctly, and to receive a quick response, we recommend you input the data as per the degree certificate or ask individuals to give you their data as they believe it's recorded in the student records system or at the time of study. The enquiry will then come to us for verification, with a 15 working-day turnaround time.
Help
If you have any problems or queries, please email heddhelp@prospects.ac.uk