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Smartcard solutions for higher education

Colleges and universities must keep their campuses safe in as cost-effective manner as is possible. At the same time, each school has its own set of unique demands and challenges, requiring flexible system architectures that satisfy today’s demands while providing the foundation to meet future security needs. HID Global’s solutions and services for educational institutions are developed from the ground up to solve these challenges and give security officers the confidence that their infrastructure can protect students, staff and faculty for years to come.

Building the foundation: Reader and card technology

The majority of today’s institutions still use magstripe cards that offer little security. As such, many universities are seeing a rapid increase in fake student ID cards. In order to solve this problem, the best option is to migrate all the way to contactless high frequency smartcards, which combine improved security with the convenience of being able to use a single card for multiple applications, including secure debit and payment capabilities.

These smartcards can be used for safe and secure keyless access throughout the campus – in dorms, research facilities, as well as departmental ID verification and meal plan purchases. Overall, the expense of moving to contactless smartcards is outweighed by the long-term cost savings from improved management efficiencies. Moreover, migrating from old to new systems using multi-technology cards and readers need not disrupt day-to-day workflows. For example, universities can retain their existing student ID and issue code numbering system.

Secure issuance: The other half of the equation

A secure and efficient printer/encoder solution is critical for issuing student ID cards, even – and especially – during the busiest periods at the beginning of each term. Students do not want to stand in line for hours during registration, only to be told that they must come back tomorrow to get their badge. Equally, cards need not be issued every year – each card should be issued for the life of the student’s involvement with the institution.

Fortunately, today’s printers, card materials and software deliver the highest security by incorporating critical visual and logical technologies for trustworthy authentication and to help deter tampering and forgery. The latest software also makes it easy for administrators to synchronise card encoding information with the student enrolment database, eliminating the possibility of errors while simplifying future changes that might be required.

HID Global’s FARGO HDP printers exemplify the benefits of High Definition Printing (HDP) technology. Unlike traditional Direct-to-Card (DTC) printers, HDP printers actually print a high-resolution image to a transfer film, which is then adhered to the card. This process provides exceptional image quality and eliminates the possibility of print head damage caused by direct contact with the card’s contact chip. While some university card services teams may be nervous about printing smartcards, it is not very different than printing magstripe cards, with very similar workflow processes. Secure issuance solutions should be intuitive and require little or no training.

Printers should also be field-upgradable so they can meet new requirements, as student ID systems needs change and evolve. And finally, the software application has to support multiple uses, as well as feature easy-to-use card templates that streamline the card creation process, including synchronising all data used in the card.

It’s also important to consider the trade-offs of going with a low-end printer versus one that may cost more initially, but reduces expenses over time. For instance, high-throughput solutions such as HID Global’s HDP8500 industrial card printer can run operations in parallel, speeding issuance by encoding one student’s card while printing another. The HDP8500 also supports both centralised and distributed printing, so universities can pool two or more desktop units at the card services office for large-volume, centralised card runs, as well as individual units at locations such as residence halls where authorised users can print and issue cards to students. This not only alleviates long card pickup lines but improves student convenience.

Supporting visitors

In addition, students, faculty and staff are not the only people on campus – any university physical access control system platform must also support visitors. Proper visitor registration is one of several important security safeguards that all universities should address, and protecting campus residence halls is of particular concern. When setting up a visitor management system, it is important the right printer is selected, with the appropriate features and suitable levels of reliability and durability. Also, depending on the campus environment, it may be advantageous to specify vandal-resistant readers.

Increasingly, visitor management systems are being integrated with the university’s access control systems to provide a completely secure solution. The University of Arizona has such a campus colleague/visitor system in place. Guest information that is entered into the visitor management database is seamlessly passed to the card office ID management system. The visitor is now eligible for card issuance. The same campus card is issued to the visitor with 'tap and go' technology for door access. When the visitor is no longer active in the system, the card is deactivated for keyless access and other campus services.

Another good investment is printers with built-in programmers/encoders, which combine what were previously multiple processes into a single in-line card personalisation step. With this approach, only one automated step is required to synchronise pre-programmed data on the card’s electronics with personal data printed on the outside of the card. Users simply submit a card into a desktop printer equipped with an internal smart card encoder, and the card is personalised inside and out. This speeds issuance while eliminating the risk of human error during manual entry, which can lead to large numbers of cards being thrown away. Field-upgradable units enable universities that already own a card printer to add an encoder in the field so they can leverage smart card benefits well into the future. When they’re ready to maximise their smartcards’ functionality, they’ll already have the smart issuance part of the equation figured out.

Protecting students, staff and property is one of the university’s most important responsibilities. Contactless smartcard technology delivers not only the highest levels of security, but also the greatest efficiency and convenience. By investing in a single-credential access control solution that enables universities to print multi-purpose cards themselves, they are able to tailor their card distribution based on their own needs, while at the same time providing adequate protection from outside threats.

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