Academic affiliation could not be verified – what evidence should I submit to get approved?

[jungminchoilab]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Verification Help & Guidance

Hi everyone,

Hi everyone,

I recently applied for GitHub Education (teacher verification) with my school email address and certificate of employment and received the following response from the GitHub Education Team:

We couldn't verify your academic affiliation based on your submission (Oct 16, 2026) for user @jungminchoilab.

The email only pointed me to the general "Why wasn't my application approved?" documentation, but it didn't explain which specific part of my submission failed verification, so I'm not sure what to fix before reapplying.

Could someone help me with the following questions?

1. What are the most common reasons an academic affiliation cannot be verified, and how can I find out which one applies to my application?
2. Are there specific requirements for the document, such as issue date, language, or format?
3. My account name/display name is "Choi Lab" — could a mismatch between my GitHub profile name and the name on my academic documents cause the rejection? If so, should I update my profile before reapplying?

I want to make sure my next application is complete and correct, so I'd appreciate any guidance from the community or the GitHub Education team.

Thank you in advance!
Jungmin