What do Universities mean by this for verification?

[kmo0416]

What do universities mean when they ask for a scan of your original certificates for your exam qualifications whether it is for GCSEs or A-Levels?

What do they mean by 'scan' in this regard? Is it literally just a case of scanning with your phone and then sending pictures by email? How is that useful for verification purposes compared to sending certificates via post?

They mean just take a picture and upload to the website.

Or email them in. Don’t send though, they can get lost. Much easier just to take a pic and email or upload them.

Because otherwise universities get thousands of certificates via post and its a logistical nightmare trying to return them all, because a lot of students don't reply to emails requesting pick up after matriculation and even if they do, the storage space required is immense. We used to do this in the "olden days" aka 10-15 years ago but fortunately, now we can verify most international qualifications are the real deal via other means so therefore we only need a scan which we can then confirm digitally.

What do you mean 'we can verify the qualifications by other means'? What other means? Does this normally mean that students have to send extra proof or that exam boards are contacted or something like that or is it just a case of seeing if the scan looks legitimate and giving it the benefit of the doubt?

It means that universities have access to (global) internal verification systems, so we can verify the qualifications with awarding bodies such as exam boards. We can't rely on the certificate copies themselves as they could be fake, but the paper copies help minimise the physical paperwork involved and we want the applicant to send us what they've said they have been awarded, as then if they're lying (to put it bluntly) we can make a case against them. Unfortunately (in the top tier at least) universities can not give applicants "the benefit of the doubt" when it comes to admissions, but most applicants are honest so they shouldn't worry.