Verifying Official Documents with e-Signatures

Please note: Certified letters and transcripts are issued by Academic Registry in a secure electronic document format.

Verification partners

Official UL Documents from the above date are issued via Parchment.

1. Please ensure you receive a PDF of the file and not a printed/scanned copy. 

2.  Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat: 

Opening the file within your email or browser may not allow you to see the signature details. 
If needed, you can install the latest free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.   
When you open the document, Acrobat may suggest that you download an update to Trusted Certificates. You should allow this as it allows electronic signatures to be verified.

3.  To verify the document is unaltered since it was issued, and that it is signed: 

At the top of the document a blue panel will confirm that the document has been certified by Academic Registry, GPS or UL Global, and has not been modified since it was issued.

If you require further information, click on the ‘Signature Panel’, to the right of the blue panel as seen below:

After clicking on the ‘Signature Panel’, more information about the signature appears in the menu to the left (see screenshot below):

You can check the validation of the signature information by clicking on the icon beside ‘Validate All’ and then selecting ‘Validate Signature’.

You can see more information about the signature by clicking ‘Signature Properties’.

4. Opening the document in another PDF viewer:

If you don’t open the document in Adobe PDF reader and you use an online PDF viewer you will not be able to see the signature details as above.

Further information on Digitary and other Official Documents available to students is available here. 

1. Global Sign: For documents issued from 27 July 2020 – 04 March 2022

Documents issued within the above dates are issued via Global Sign.

Please ensure you receive a PDF of the file and not a printed/scanned copy.
Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
Opening the file within your email or browser may not allow you to see the signature details.
If needed, you can install the latest free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
When you open the document, Acrobat may suggest that you download an update to Trusted Certificates. You should allow this, as it enables electronic signatures to be verified (insert image 1).
To verify the document is unaltered since it was issued, and that it is signed, at the top of the document, a blue bar will confirm that the document has been certified by Academic Registry or the International Education Division at UL. You can verify this by checking that the email address is @ul.ie (insert image 2).
If you require further information, click on the digital stamp which will read ‘Academic Registry’ or ‘International Education Division’ (insert image 3).
The pop-up notice will confirm that the document has not been modified since it was issued and that the document was signed by Academic Registry or the International Education Division at the University of Limerick. Further information on the signature is available under the Signature Properties (insert image 4).

2. DocuSign: For documents issued from 12 May 2020 to 27 July 2020

Documents issued between the above dates are issued via DocuSign. If you have received a document, you can verify it as follows:

Please ensure you receive a PDF of the file and not a printed copy.
The PDF should contain both the letter/transcript from UL and a Certificate of Completion.
Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat. Opening the file within your email or browser may not allow you to see the signature details. If needed, you can install the latest free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
To verify the document is unaltered since it was issued, and that it is signed, click on the ‘Signature Panel’ to open further details and verify that the document has not been modified.
The ‘Signature Panel’ can confirm that it is unaltered since it was signed and validated, and that the PDF was exported from www.docusign.com.
Check the last page of the document (Certificate of Completion) to verify that it was signed by an ‘@ul.ie’ email address.

If the signature is not appearing as valid, please ensure:

That you are viewing the file in a recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (free to download).
That you update your Adobe Trust List.

The University of Limerick uses Parchment as a secure online platform that enables institutions, learners, employers, and government agencies to certify, issue, accept and verify academic credentials worldwide.
Education Verification requests need to be made via Parchment.
On the Official Documents webpage, there is a section titled ‘What documents are available through Parchment?’ where a graduate is signposted to the relevant route to obtain their document. Further information on Parchment and other official documents available to students is available here.

Parchment documents can only be produced by vetted organisations such as the University of Limerick, which are part of the Parchment network.
The subject of documents (i.e. students and graduates) cannot upload or modify documents on the platform.
Any PDF documents produced through this service contain cryptographic digital signatures to ensure their authenticity and integrity.
Signatures are automatically verified upon opening documents in Adobe Acrobat Reader version 9 or later.
The graduate can also share documents via a secure link on Parchment.