Red Hat Academy at Parul University: Free Certifications and the RHCSA Pathway

Red Hat Academy gives students a route to industry-recognised Linux and cloud skills through structured courses, hands-on labs and a pathway to formal certification. At Parul University it runs through the campus communities supported by Tinkering Hub.

The arrangement explained at the Red Hat India Challenge on 16 October 2026 works roughly like this:

• Students enrol in Red Hat Academy courses and practise in a real terminal environment
• Consistent daily practice earns an exam voucher
• The voucher unlocks a discounted attempt at a Red Hat certification exam
• Staying active in the community opens access to further courses over time

There are two tiers worth understanding.

RH124 and RH134, the foundational Red Hat System Administration courses, are provided to every student in the second year as part of the curriculum.

Students who attend the Red Hat community workshops receive additional courses. At the October event, participants were enrolled in TO188, an OpenShift course titled Introduction to Podman and OpenShift, and were told more modules would follow as further workshops are held, each completed in two to three weeks.

The free courses carry one condition, and it is a fair one: attendance at the community workshops, plus consistent effort.

The speaker at this event said that the voucher comes from spending around half an hour per day on the course. He also said that you shouldn’t speed through the modules by clicking next until you get the certificate. This means that you won’t be generating the voucher. Instead, leave your terminal logged onto the course for half an hour every day and it will automatically qualify you.

The voucher matters because of the main examination, the RHCSA, or Red Hat Certified System Administrator.

As stated at the workshop, the examination fee is otherwise around Rs. 40,000, and the voucher can reduce it substantially, which is why the speaker’s view was that a student getting a large discount should take it. These figures were quoted at the event and are presented here as stated, not as independently verified pricing. Students should confirm current course and exam costs with Red Hat Academy before relying on them.

The speaker also made a career argument worth passing on as his view. A common worry in technology is that AI and machine learning are absorbing jobs. His response was to aim at work AI cannot be trusted to run alone, and he placed system administration in that category: looking after servers, databases and the systems organisations depend on.

He named large organisations that rely on this kind of infrastructure and argued that free certification in the area is an opportunity worth taking. Treat this as a well-informed opinion from a practitioner rather than a guarantee, but the underlying point is sound: infrastructure skills tend to stay in demand.

For a student at Parul University, the path is straightforward:

• Create a Red Hat ID and enrol through the campus Red Hat community
• Attend the community workshops run with Tinkering Hub
• Keep the terminal open for about half an hour a day to build the voucher
• Work towards the RHCSA, then continue with further modules as they open

The courses are the visible benefit. The habit of daily practice is the one that actually produces a certified administrator.

SOURCE AND CONTEXT. This article draws on the Red Hat India Challenge coverage report (Parul University, 16 October 2026). Course prices, the RHCSA exam fee and voucher discounts are attributed to the speaker at the event and are presented as stated, not independently verified. The free courses are conditional on attending community workshops and on daily practice.

Students who want Linux, cloud and certification skills can explore the Faculty of Engineering and Technology and the university’s computing programmes.

Faculty of Engineering and Technology: paruluniversity.ac.in/faculty/engineering-technology

All programmes: paruluniversity.ac.in/all-programs

• Parul University Multidisciplinary private university, Vadodara, Gujarat
• Red Hat Academy Industry certification programme partner
• Dr. Vaibhav Gandhi Director, Tinkering Hub and Chief Mentor
• Tinkering Hub, Parul University Supports student-led technical communities

→  Red Hat India Challenge at Parul University: a student-led workshop 

→  Manish Kudtarkar and the AWS Student Builder Group at Parul University 

→  Explore Engineering and Technology programmes at Parul University