Croatia to introduce digital school certificates and diplomas

ZAGREB, 28 May 2026 (Hina) – Croatia will begin issuing school certificates and diplomas in digital form from the end of the 2025/2026 academic year, as part of a wider push to modernise the country’s education system.

The new system has been developed by CARNET in cooperation with the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth, in line with regulations published in Narodne novine.

Digital certificates will be permanently stored in the Register of Issued Educational Documents and authenticated using a qualified electronic seal in accordance with the European Union’s eIDAS regulation.

The regulation provides a legal framework for secure electronic identification and trust services across the EU, giving digital documents the same legal validity as physical documents and handwritten signatures.

According to CARNET, the move is designed to improve security, simplify access to educational documents and reduce administrative burdens for schools and higher education institutions.

Hrvoje Puljiz, director of CARNET, said the new register places Croatia among the countries with the most advanced education registries in Europe.

He said the system would allow citizens to use educational documents more securely, quickly and transparently, while also helping institutions operate more efficiently.

Citizens will be able to access their digital certificates and diplomas at any time through the e-Građani platform for employment, further education and other administrative purposes.

The documents will be available in PDF format and include a unique QR code for fast and secure authenticity checks.

The register will include certificates issued from the 2024/2025 school year onwards. Certificates issued before that period will remain available only in paper form.

Antun Matija Filipović, head of Operational Security Services at CARNET, said paper certificates would remain in use for now, but students would also receive a digital version that is expected to gradually become the primary form of the document.

He added that the system would also help address the issue of uncollected certificates in schools and lay the foundation for fully digital document issuance in the future.

The Register of Issued Educational Documents (RIIO) automates the document issuing process by connecting with existing systems such as e-Matica and the Information System of Higher Education Institutions (ISVU).

CARNET said the system had been developed with a strong focus on security and privacy protection. Verification through QR codes will reveal only the necessary information without exposing additional personal data.

Parents will be able to access documents for their underage children through e-Građani, while adult users will manage their own records independently.

In the case of errors in documents, users will continue to contact schools or higher education institutions to request corrections.

The project forms part of Croatia’s broader digital transformation of public administration and education services.