Academic verification
How to request academic verification documents for current and former students as a third party, such as a prospective employer or Higher Education Institution.
What the letter includes
An academic verification letter outlines a student's:
- award
- course of study
- dates of attendance
- degree classification
Commercial organisations
If you're a commercial organisation (eg an employer, employment agency or screening agency) you can request a current or former student’s academic verification letter via the link below.
There's an administration fee of £20 per verification.
Request Academic VerificationOnce you've placed your order, please 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 (eg Higher Education Institution, Local Authority or UK and overseas governmental body) you can request a current or former student’s academic verification via the email below.
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 they studied in.
Processing time
Once we've received your order and the student’s signed consent, we'll process your request within 10-15 working days.
Please be aware that we are receiving higher volumes of email enquiries than usual. We continue to aim to process orders within 10-15 working days, but this may take longer during busy periods. Please be aware that we cannot expedite orders under any circumstances.
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.
If you have any further queries, please contact SSiD at academic-verification@sheffield.ac.uk.
Information for students
The Student Services Information Desk (SSiD) answers a range of general student related enquiries