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Replacing a lost diploma
Lost your diploma? Don't buy a "replica". Get the real one back.
Perhaps the cardboard tube didn't survive the house move, and the job you've just been offered wants proof of your degree by Friday. Search "buy diploma" and the screen fills with replicas "identical to your original". Here is how to get the real thing back, and what to show meanwhile. Never finished? Skip to the better way in.
Your degree isn't lost. Only the paper is.
Lose your passport and you don't stop being a citizen. Nor do you order a "replica passport" online. You go back to the office that issued it, because your citizenship lives in its records, and the booklet is only how you carry it.
A degree works the same way. When you graduated, your university recorded the award against your name, and that entry is the degree. The certificate is simply the part you could take home.
That's why a check goes to the records. The UK's official service, Hedd, verifies degrees "using records held by the relevant higher education provider". The US National Student Clearinghouse confirms degrees for colleges that take part, and supplies no copies of diplomas.
Picture the two answers a check can bring back (illustrations, not any service's exact wording):
| You graduated, paper lost | Paper bought, never graduated |
|---|---|
| "Award confirmed: [degree], [university]" | "No award found in this name" |
Neither answer mentions the paper. A real degree can come back unconfirmed too. Hedd says the commonest cause is details that don't match the records, so give the employer your name at graduation.
Proof by Friday: your degree's emergency documents
Stranded abroad without a passport, you'd travel home on an emergency document. Your degree has stand-ins too:
| Your situation | Your stand-in |
|---|---|
| Your new employer will run a check | Sign their consent form. They, or a screening firm, ask your university, Hedd or the Clearinghouse. |
| You want to send the employer your own Clearinghouse self-verification | Don't: the Clearinghouse says self-verifications "may not be shared with third parties" |
| The employer wants a copy of the certificate | A registry letter confirming your award, or a transcript |
| You have a HEAR or digital certificate (UK) | Share your Higher Education Achievement Report or certificate through Gradintel, if your university is a partner |
| You studied in Australia or New Zealand | A My eQuals link from your university |
| You need a UK apostille | Order the replacement first. A solicitor or notary certifies it for the Legalisation Office. |
| You need a US apostille | Order the replacement first. Have it notarised, unless a public official signed it, for the state's apostille office, usually the Secretary of State. |
| Your university has closed | Start with who holds the records now |
Your replacement request, ready to send
Your diploma comes from the body that awarded your degree: usually your university, though GOV.UK notes it may not be the college where you studied. Reach its registry (registrar in the US) from its own website, and search for "replacement certificate" or "replacement diploma".
Don't start from a search advert: a search for "buy my diploma online" turns up replica sellers, and some call their products replacements. Not sure a page is really your university's? Test it with our verification check. Have these ready:
- Your full name when you graduated, and any names since
- Your date of birth, and your student number if you have it
- The exact award title and classification, as on the certificate, and roughly when it was awarded
- A postal address that will still be yours in a few weeks
Then fill in and send:
Subject: Request for a replacement degree certificate
Dear [Registry / Registrar's Office] team, I graduated from [university] with a [degree and subject] in [month and year]. My certificate has been [lost / destroyed / damaged], and I would like to order an official replacement.
My details: [full name at graduation], [other names], [date of birth], [student number, if known]. Please tell me what you need from me, the fee and the likely wait.
I also need proof of my degree soon. Could you send a letter confirming my award, or tell me how an employer can verify it with you? Thank you, [your name and address]
What comes back may carry different signatures and a duplicate mark, and there may be a limit on replacements, so keep this one safe.
Like the fresh number in a replacement passport, that duplicate mark isn't a flaw. It is the issuer saying, "We made this."
Now the message for whoever set Friday's deadline:
"My degree certificate is being replaced by [university]. I'm happy to sign your consent form so you can verify my degree with them directly, or through [Hedd / the National Student Clearinghouse]. Meanwhile I can send [a letter from the registry / my transcript]."
Do this today. Send both messages, so the check can start before the replacement arrives.
Can you buy your diploma? Yes, from exactly one seller
Only the passport office issues passports, and only your awarding body issues your diploma. So yes, you can buy your diploma: expect a fee for a replacement, and many universities take orders online, some through services such as Parchment.
Every other seller is selling something else, and their questions give it away. A replica site doesn't ask whether you graduated, or who you are. Your university checks both first.
Show each paper to your university and you would hear the difference: "We didn't make this," or "We made this."
That bites when the paper reaches your university: Hedd notes that when details don't match, the university may ask to see a copy of the certificate. Otherwise the check reads the records, not the paper.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a replica can count as a false document under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 even if your degree is real, because your university didn't make it, and knowingly using one to get hired can be an offence. For a degree you earned, it's a risk with no upside.
When "buying your diploma" is literally true
Sometimes the diploma isn't lost at all: the university is holding it, or won't post a replacement, until a balance is paid. Then the honest route is to pay, or agree a plan.
US college holding your transcript?
Federal rules require colleges that take federal student aid to provide, on request, an official transcript covering the terms in which you received that aid, as long as the charges for those terms are paid or covered by an agreement to pay. This covers your transcript, not the diploma itself.
Your university closed or merged? Find who holds the records
In the UK, the Hedd FAQs explain that its institution search shows, where available, which organisation now holds the records of a provider that has closed or merged.
In the US, find the official website of the state where the college was through USA.gov, and search it for "closed school transcripts".
New Mexico's Higher Education Department, for example, keeps transcripts from certain closed private colleges and supplies a diploma copy where it has one.
Elsewhere, search the education ministry's or higher education regulator's site for closed institution records.
Here for a diploma you didn't earn? There's a better way in
If you never finished, there is no record to reissue: a bought diploma gets the answer "No award found in this name", and the paper in your folder becomes the problem.
See what a fake degree can cost, what a bought degree really is, and why a homemade PDF fails the same check.
There is an honest version of what the seller promised: recognition of prior learning, which can count your work experience towards a degree and exempt you from modules.
Started a degree? Ask your old university for a transcript of anything you passed. Never enrolled? Ask an admissions team how it assesses work experience for entry: in Scotland, the SCQF Partnership explains that recognition of prior learning can get you in without the usual entry requirements.
Our admissions service can help you apply; each university decides admission, and how much your experience counts.
Sources
- Hedd: FAQs: provider records, who pays, copies on a mismatch, closed providers
- National Student Clearinghouse: Verify Now: employer checks, participating schools, self-verification not for third parties, no diploma copies
- Gradintelligence: Student FAQs: sharing documents your university uploads
- My eQuals: Learners: sharing your credentials
- GOV.UK: Get a document legalised: notary or solicitor certification, then the Legalisation Office
- HCCH: United States apostille authorities: state offices, generally the Secretary of State
- Florida Department of State: Apostille FAQ: notarised diplomas (one state's example)
- GOV.UK: Check if your university or college can award a degree: who awards your degree
- Parchment: How it works: replacement diplomas, matched to school records
- University of Edinburgh and Ohio University pages: identity, duplicate marks, limits, balances owed
- Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, section 9: meaning of "false"; section 3: using a false instrument; section 10: being hired counts as "prejudice"; section 31: not Scotland
- 34 CFR 668.14 (PDF, latest edition): transcripts for terms paid with federal student aid
- USA.gov: State governments: links to each state's official website
- New Mexico Higher Education Department: Closed college transcript requests
- London Metropolitan University: Accreditation of Prior Learning (England) and SCQF Partnership: RPL Hub for learners (Scotland)
Want a degree that holds up? Our admissions service helps working adults apply to university in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, choosing only universities that are officially recognised. If no university on your shortlist offers you a place, we refund our fee in full.