Putting digital credentials to the test: the 2026 Abitur certificate
In the 2026 field trial, students receive a secure, verifiable PDF of their Abitur certificate alongside the paper original. The trial is the first step towards digital credentials that can be stored in the EUDI Wallet from 2027.
Published 3 September 2026
Digital education credentials are one application of the wider concept of digital identities.
Every year, schools in Germany issue hundreds of thousands of Abitur certificates. Within weeks, universities, employers and public authorities are dealing with originals or certified copies. Staff often still enter grades into internal systems by hand and check each paper document for authenticity. Moving between paper and digital systems in this way takes up valuable time and staff resources at every stage.
On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ), Bundesdruckerei GmbH is therefore developing a digital service that will allow Germany’s Länder to issue and verify education credentials. These credentials can be provided securely and with built-in protection against forgery: initially as electronically sealed PDFs and, from 2027, as a credential in the d-you digital wallet, the German government’s version of the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet).
The digital Abitur certificate pilot also raises practical questions for organisations that issue and receive the documents. How should digital certificates be read and verified, for example? This page brings the key information together, with a particular focus on secure verification during the admissions process.
Quick guide for universities and other higher education institutions
Received a digital Abitur certificate as a PDF? The digitally sealed document is an officially issued certificate. You do not need to contact the school that issued it.
The ‘Digital Abitur Certificate’ project: the vision
In Germany, education and school administration are the responsibility of the Länder. The ‘Digital Abitur Certificate’ project provides shared infrastructure while preserving this decentralised model and the diversity of the Länder’s education systems. At the same time, it lays the groundwork for integration with the EUDI Wallet.
The project has three main aims:
- Issue and verify certificates digitally: Applicants can submit their credentials entirely online. This opens the way to automated admissions processes at universities and, in future, other organisations.
- Protect credentials against tampering throughout: Cryptography protects both the sealed PDF and, in future, credentials stored in the EUDI Wallet. Any change to a credential is detected when it is verified.
- Credentials usable across Europe from 2027: With EUDI Wallet integration, education credentials can be stored securely on a smartphone alongside other digital identity documents, such as an ID card or driving licence. This creates a basis for common cross-border standards. In future, students and skilled professionals will be able to present their qualifications digitally in other EU countries without extra certification steps.
How digital education credentials work
The digital Abitur certificate uses a layered document format designed to work today and support the move to the EUDI Wallet in future. Bundesdruckerei GmbH combines the familiar PDF format with machine-readable data and a digital seal from the issuing Land. The certificate is therefore fully usable today, while also providing the basis for integration with the EUDI Wallet. The same sealing infrastructure and interoperable data can later be used to issue credentials directly to the EUDI Wallet.
For use in the wallet, credentials of this kind can be issued as qualified electronic attestations of attributes. These are known as Qualified Electronic Attestations of Attributes (QEAAs).
The document combines the following three layers:
A decentralised approach to data security
For official documents, security is about more than preventing forgery. The public bodies responsible for the data must also retain control of it. The infrastructure is therefore built around a decentralised architecture and follows the principle of ‘Privacy by Design’.
All certificate data comes from sources managed by the relevant Länder and schools. The approach is already seeing strong acceptance in practice: almost 99 per cent of pupils taking part in the current field trial have consented to their data being processed for the purposes of the trial.
The digital certificate in the 2026 field trial
Cross-state field trials of the digital Abitur certificate are currently paving the way for the move to the wallet architecture. Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony are already testing the digital Abitur certificate using real data from school-leaving cohorts. Brandenburg is running the same process in parallel using test data. Here is what the trial means in practice for the main groups involved:
With the new infrastructure, admissions teams will no longer need to work through stacks of paper. Incoming certificates can be verified digitally instead.
- Automated verification – the goal: The verification endpoint is designed to allow systems to check both whether a seal is valid and whether it has been revoked, using an API. Direct integration with leading campus management systems is being rolled out in stages.
- Manual verification – the fallback: Until that integration is complete, most standard PDF readers can be used to check certificates manually. The certificate or signature status shown by the reader – for example the ‘blue bar’ – confirms that the seal is authentic and that the document has not been changed. This method does not currently check revocation status automatically, although this can be added in future.
Bundesdruckerei GmbH provides a standard for sealing PDFs. The Länder, however, remain the sole issuers of the certificates, using their own qualified electronic seals.
- Efficient batch processing: Issuing digital certificates should add very little work for school offices. Certificates for an entire year group can be submitted for digital sealing together in a single batch.
- Proven in practice: More than 2,500 digital certificates have already been processed successfully in the current field trial, showing that the process works reliably in day-to-day school operations.
- Legally compliant change management: A document issued with a qualified electronic seal cannot subsequently be changed without invalidating the seal. If a name or grade needs to be corrected after issue, the school simply issues a corrected certificate and revokes the previous one.
On the day they receive their certificates, school leavers at participating schools are given a digital record of their qualification for the first time, alongside the paper certificate. The two formats complement each other. The paper certificate retains its personal and legal significance, while the digital version makes applications and university enrolment easier.
- Easy online applications: The digital certificate can be submitted directly as part of an online application. There is no need to send certified paper copies or original documents by post.
- Available straight away: Students can download the digital certificate using the QR code provided with the paper certificate and save it securely.
- Always to hand: Stored on a smartphone or computer, the certificate is available whenever it is needed – with no need to hunt for the paper version in a folder or drawer.
FAQ: Questions about the project
Yes. It is an officially issued digital version of the certificate. Under the European eIDAS 2.0 Regulation, the qualified electronic seal from the issuing Land gives it the same evidential value as the paper certificate. The legal basis for this is the EU’s eIDAS 2.0 Regulation.
Whether a digital certificate is accepted in a particular admissions process depends on the law of the relevant Land. Because the document carries a qualified electronic seal, there is no need for separate confirmation from the school that issued it. Its authenticity can be checked directly in a PDF reader or automatically through the university’s CloudPDF API.
No. It is an additional digital option designed to make online applications faster and easier for school leavers.
In future, universities will be able to use the automated CloudPDF verification endpoint via an API. Until then, a standard PDF reader can be used for a manual check. Its built-in signature validation function immediately shows whether the seal is intact.
A scan is just a digital image. It has no built-in protection against tampering and contains no machine-readable data. The digital Abitur certificate is a smart document that offers two key advantages:
- Automation: Grades are included as structured data using the XSchule XML standard. Campus management systems can import them directly, without staff having to re-enter the information manually.
- Security: The issuing Land’s qualified electronic seal protects the document cryptographically. Any subsequent change invalidates the seal.
Yes. Certificates issued during the 2025 pilot and sealed by SPRIND GmbH, which previously worked on the project, remain valid indefinitely and can still be fully verified.
The two organisations are also collaborating on the EUDI Wallet. Bundesdruckerei provides the PID provider service for the wallet’s core digital identity.
No. There is no central database. CloudPDF is a protected web service built around a decentralised architecture and the principle of ‘Privacy by Design’. Schools and Länder retain full control of their data.
Contact the project team
- Universities & IT service providers: technical documentation for integrating the CloudPDF verification endpoint via API.
- Länder & schools: advice on the organisational steps and interfaces needed to connect schools to the service.