Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) in Albuquerque has announced its plans to issue student-owned digital credentials using blockchain technology.

CNM announced the system will debut on December 15, 2017. Using blockchain technology, CNM will begin providing select students with easily verifiable and secure higher education credentials that could be easily and securely accessed, shared instantly with potential employers, other schools or anybody else the graduate designates, free of charge and without the need for an intermediary. Beyond grades and official diplomas, the digital record can also include detailed descriptions of skills learned.

Importantly, the blockchain-based system would ensure the authenticity of the academic credentials even if the issuing authority ceases its operations. Employers or schools would be able to verify the legitimacy of the tamper-proof credentials immediately through a link that accesses the blockchain, without needing to contact a college registrar's office.

"We are very excited to begin adopting this technology that's going to provide more value, independence and convenience to our students throughout their lives," CNM President Katharine Winograd said. "Students put forth tremendous effort to earn their higher education credentials and we're going to start empowering more students with ownership over their own educational achievements."

According to the official release, CNM’s enterprise arm CNM Ingenuity will be the first area of the college to begin issuing the blockchain credentials. Twenty-one students graduating on December 15 from CNM Ingenuity's Deep Dive Coding bootcamps will receive the first digital credentials, which will include their diplomas and transcripts of the coding languages they learned. CNM plans to continue expanding the digital credentials in phases across all programs at the college.

CNM said that it is also working on a blockchain technology platform that will offer access to other colleges, universities and K-12 school systems in New Mexico that want to begin issuing digital diplomas to their graduates.