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Apple Wallet Builds Contactless Student ID Support on Campus

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/21/19
student using iPhone as ID

A system in place at the universities of Tennessee, Vermont and San Francisco is enabling students to access buildings and buy essentials with their iPhones and Apple watches as replacements for traditional student identification cards. The solution at those institutions uses a combination of electronic or wireless locks and readers from Schlage and security technology from Allegion and CBORD, working with Apple's Wallet app.

The setup enables students, faculty and staff to get into locked buildings campus, such as residence halls, and do monetary transactions on and off campus. To use the service, they hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near a reader anywhere physical student ID cards are accepted. Schools can wirelessly issue credentials to users that are protected by two-factor authentication and that can be remotely deactivated by the student or college.

This capability works with several Schlage commercial lines:

  • AD-300 and AD-400 electronic locks;
  • NDE networked wireless cylindrical locks;
  • LE networked wireless mortise locks; and
  • MT Multi-Technology readers.

"As an institution that values innovation, it's important to us that we are always adapting to the way students use technology to enhance the campus experience," said Chris Cimino, senior vice chancellor for finance and administration at the University of Tennessee, in a statement. "Being able to access your VolCard on your iPhone is one of the many ways [the University of Tennessee] is continuously improving to meet expectations for a modern campus." VolCard is the university's debit account service.

Recently, Allegion collaborated with Transact to enable contactless student IDs in Apple Wallet through Schlage's AD Series Locks at Mercer University.

Besides support for Allegion and CBORD, Apple Wallet also works with HID technology.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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