The first basic service to be set up is student status authentication. This service offers the possibility for any organization (private business, public administration, association, HEI…) to confirm whether a card holder is a student or not. This service is a necessity because student status authentication is usually a prerequisite to give access to other services that are restricted to students.
Others services will become available afterward according to each HEIs implication to do so, such as:
- The possibility to use the card as an electronic wallet for day-to-day expenses
- The possibility to write new information on the card after it has been delivered, granting access to a wide range of new services for the student
- The possibility of using the card as a key to allow exchange of data between HEIs, in order to facilitate administrative procedures during student mobility (no implementation known to do that for now)
- Dematerialisation of the card itself, using a smartphone. HEI can already create an basic eCard integrated to their own mobile App iby adding ID, ESCN, QrCode directly (technical development needed). This card could have extended access to physical services but only with a future implementation of NFC transaction.
See : ESC Improvement to come
Fig1. Progressivity in project’s scope
Additional functionalities associated with the card still have to be defined at this stage of the project.