Academic Verification Requests for Third Parties
How to request academic verification documents for current and former students as a third party, such as a prospective employer or Higher Education Institution.
- Current Students
- What the letter includes
- Commercial Organisations
- Non-Commercial Organisations
- Required Information
- Personal Character References
- Processing Time
- Delivery and Collection
Current Students
You don't need an Academic Verification Letter to prove your student status.
You can request a Certificate of Student Status from SSiD in person or online.
Request Certificate of Student Status
What the letter includes
An academic verification letter outlines a current or former students':
- award
- course of study
- dates of attendance
- degree classification
Commercial Organisations
If you're a commercial organisation, such as an employer, Employment Agency or Screening Agency, you can request a current or former student’s academic verification letter via the Online Store.
There's an administration fee of £10 per verification.
Once you've placed your order, you must email us a scanned copy of signed consent from the student authorising the release of their information.
Please include the student’s full name and your order number in the subject line.
Non-Commercial Organisations
If you're a non-commercial organisation, such as a Higher Education Institution, Local Authority or UK and overseas governmental body, you can request a current or former student’s academic verification by emailing:
In the email, please include:
- proof of your identity and relationship with the student
- a scanned copy of signed consent from the student authorising the release of their information
This service is free for non-commercial organisations.
Required information
To avoid delays when processing your order please provide the following information about the student, where possible:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Date of award
- Dates of study
- Location of study
- Full title of subject studied
Personal character references
We can't provide personal character references for current or former students.
You can request this from the academic department in which they studied.
Processing time
Once we've received your order and the student’s signed consent, your request will be processed within three working days.
Your request may take up to six weeks if:
- the student graduated before 1998
- we need to query requests where data is incomplete
- we need to query requests if the data does not match our records
Delivery and collection
You can also order your documents for delivery.
If you have any further queries please contact SSiD via email.