UGM Adopts Space and Time for On-Chain Student Course Records
Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia’s prestigious public research university, made headlines this week by announcing a groundbreaking partnership with Space and Time, a decentralized database platform. The collaboration will see UGM storing student course records on-chain, revolutionizing the way educational credentials are managed and verified.
Through this innovative approach, students who successfully complete courses will have their records securely stored on the Space and Time network. This move towards on-chain credentialing ensures that students have access to immutable credentials that can be easily shared with potential employers or academic institutions.
Scott Dykstra, co-founder and CTO of Space and Time, emphasized the importance of this initiative in providing expanded access to education for the unbanked population. By leveraging blockchain technology, students can now demonstrate their educational achievements globally, without the need for intermediaries or traditional financial infrastructure.
UGM is set to roll out this initiative to its approximately 60,000 students, starting with English proficiency courses as the first use case for on-chain credentialing. The university also announced the launch of an on-campus AI lab powered by Dreamspace, a tool built on the Space and Time platform, offering courses on AI application development.
This strategic move by UGM comes as a result of a partnership between the Space and Time Foundation and Indomobil Group, a leading automotive conglomerate in Indonesia. The Space and Time platform, originally developed by MakeInfinite Labs, utilizes a custom chain that aggregates data from multiple blockchains, ensuring secure and verifiable record-keeping.
Verifiable Education and Financial Access
A representative for the Space and Time Foundation highlighted the key components of the education program during an interview with Decrypt. The first component focuses on verifiable education, enabling students to consolidate their course completions and diplomas on-chain for seamless verification by potential employers or universities.
The second component involves financial access through SXT, the native digital asset of Space and Time. Each student will receive a wallet preloaded with tokens to facilitate direct payment of tuition and course fees. This system is designed to cater to students without traditional bank accounts, ensuring financial inclusivity without any additional costs.
While blockchain-based solutions in education hold immense potential, scholars caution that digital credentials could exacerbate existing inequities. A report on higher education mobility in ASEAN highlighted the importance of addressing digital readiness gaps to ensure equal access to opportunities for all students and institutions.