The UPeTD initiative was launched in July 2000 with the objective to create the necessary infrastructure and resources to allow post-graduate students to publish their theses or dissertations on the Internet in a well managed  environment which will make it accessible to the international research community. We support open access.

UPeTD forms part of the  Networked Digital Library of Theses  and Dissertations (NDLTD) which currently has more than 200 members. The NDLTD concept and software was developed at  Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech). 

The objectives of NDLTD are

• To improve graduate education by allowing students to produce electronic documents, use digital libraries, and understand issues in publishing
• To increase the availability of student research for scholars and to preserve it electronically
• To lower the cost of submitting and handling theses and dissertations
• To empower students to convey a richer message through the use of multimedia and hypermedia technologies
• To empower universities to unlock their information resources
• To advance digital library technology