Peerfin and Saintgits Group of Institutions Join Hands for a Future of Decentralised Scholarships.

Peerfin has signed an MoU with Saintgits Group of Institutions in one of the most promising and unique use cases of blockchain in India and the world at large.

The association will result in the creation of a blockchain powered scholarship ecosystem that is focused on implementing and processing scholarship programs through a blockchain-enabled platform. Through the platform, Saintgits can run their custom scholarship program on the blockchain and students can easily apply for various scholarships from around the world based on their eligibility using the Student Performance Quotient (SPQ).

Saintgits College of Engineering (SCE) is one of the most renowned institutions in Kerala, India, affiliated to the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University. SCE has already collaborated with the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (UMass Lowell) in a Twinning Program and is one of the only two institutions in South India with an AICTE-approved foreign collaboration.

During the past month, rigorous discussions were held regarding the functionalities of the Peerfin platform and the possibility of joining forces. It gives us immense delight to finally reveal that the parties have decided to cooperate in implementing the scholarship program on Peerfin platform. We are absolutely thrilled by this great opportunity to reach out to a huge audience and demonstrate to the world the functionality and possibilities of Peerfin.

We are spearheading a major change in the education sector with this prestigious association. The current scholarship system is seriously outdated and needs an application of technology to make itself more useful and accessible.

1. Trust: A wide majority of scholarships available today are processed by us, and human intervention always leaves a dangerous space for manipulation, error and inaccurate selection. There is no mechanism as yet to continuously track the progress of the application due to a total absence of transparency, which has also prompted and promoted corruption to an extent.
2. Hard to find the most eligible student: The application process is both redundant and time-consuming. It is quite hard to form the best set of criteria for shortlisting and zero in on the most deserving student from the applicants. This also results in slower processing altogether.
3. Scholarship awareness: There is a serious lack of awareness amongst the students about the various scholarships that can be of immense benefit to them. Since scholarship news never tops popular media channels, finding a suitable scholarship has become a tedious task for students. Schools and colleges make little to no efforts at keeping track of relevant scholarships and informing students about them.

The deal will kick off the world’s first blockchain based scholarship program to be run in a live environment. With Saintgits onboard, the vision of peerfin to decentralize opportunities for “everyone, everywhere” gains new momentum.

1. Global Accessibility: Implementing scholarships on peerfin will help over 3500 students from the institution gain access to scholarships from around the world on the blockchain.
2. Reduced Human Intervention: This will also bring transparency and authenticity in the scholarship process by reducing human intervention through the use of smart contracts.
3. Faster Processing: Blockchain ensures that the records are available to multiple verifiers worldwide and speeds up the processing.
4. Continuous Evaluation: Every stage of scholarship processing can be easily tracked by stakeholders anywhere in the world.
5. Transparency: Blockchain acts as a solid platform which facilitates a free flow of immutable, verifiable information and provides an immutable record of all the activities to the concerned stakeholders, thus achieving consensus among them.
6. Outcome-Based Approach: The student becomes more competitive as SPQ fluctuates with updations in their skill profile, with a better ranking giving them more visibility in the scholarship process.

The first-of-its-kind initiative comes as a giant leap in integrating the education sector in India with the blockchain. Peerfinis gearing up to rewrite a lot of norms and upend the age-old scholarship system which is yearning for a change. As the program goes live on August 1st, 2018, it will be a moment of joy for enthusiasts of a free and decentralized world.

Read about our journey so far: https://medium.com/peerfin

Website: www.peerfin.io

Telegram: t.me/peerfin

Read our whitepaper: https://www.peerfin.io/whitepaper.pdf