Advancing digitalisation: highlights from the first European Student Card Technical Development Forum

First Technical Development Forum with IT representatives

The European Student Card (ESC) Technical Development Forum convenes IT officers from the European Universities alliances and the European University Information Systems Network (EUNIS).

The forum aims to capture users’ needs, insights, concerns, and proposed improvements to the ESC and ensure that these are integrated into future developments.

The first meeting of the forum gathered representatives from five European Universities alliances (FOR-EU 1, FOR-EU 2, EPICUR, EDUC, FORTHEM) and EUNIS.

The forum included an IT update on the ESC and a demo of the new ESC-Router to gather feedback on its features, functionalities, and user-friendliness.

Participants discussed factors around validating ESC issuance, the services offered through digital ESCs, card technologies, and technical obstacles encountered by higher education institutions while implementing the ESC.

Main highlights

• almost all participants agreed that the new ESC-Router seemed easier to use and navigate.
• the majority of participants recognised the value of the ESC and were eager to see the ESC taking a more active role in validating student status to access services.
• most participants expressed their interest in promoting more digital ESCs over physical ESCs, as they could help higher education institutions to digitalise further.
• some participants highlighted that while they mostly issue physical cards, they are now creating digital accounts and digital ESCs. This aligns with the ESC’s overall purpose and highlights that digital wallets are becoming commonplace for student cards.
• participants suggested including specific ESC use cases in communication materials to help institutions, students, and service providers recognise the benefits of implementing the ESC.
• improvements to the ESC-Router could be introduced to differentiate between students using the ESC to access services during their mobility abroad and students using the ESC to access services abroad when they are not on mobility (e.g., when travelling for leisure).