A Growing Market for Student Online Identification

The traditional role of identification as a means to uniquely link a person to a document that bestows rights and privileges is being expanded to grant access to all types of government and commercial services.

A recent article on Security Boulevard explains why online student identity verification has become more popular as a quick and secure method of verifying student IDs and a cost-effective approach to onboarding new students.

The rapidly disappearing manual and paper-based student verification procedures are neither scalable nor practical for educational institutions. They frequently lead to lost student records, protracted search times, verification mistakes leading to inaccurate student records, low productivity for administrators, and significant storage costs.

To overcome these problems, a variety of technologies are being deployed to digitise online student identity verification. Although commercial solutions differ, the primary steps of online identity verification are: 

• The customer logs in to the institution’s website, app, or platform.

• The customer permits access to his/her device’s camera and microphone to verify their identity.

• He or she is asked to photograph the datapage of the ID document on both sides.

• The user is requested to show his/her face and depending on the type of application, is asked to make particular movements of arms or face, or just a passive front facial photograph is captured.

• If necessary, a team of qualified agents validates the recorded session.

Once the applicant’s identity has been verified, a face match with the user’s ID document serves as proof that the user is who they say they are. Among these credentials are the user’s face biometric analysis in the liveness detection, their ID information, and their personal details such as email address and phone number.

The user is now verified and can start enrolling in the institution.

The advantages of online student ID verification over its paper-based equivalent are clear and include the prospect of error-free ID authentication, remote student onboarding, safe storage of student IDs and data and easy student profile management.

Students can also communicate with administrators online to confirm that the necessary paperwork has been filed and the proper processes have been followed.

But is this a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

Contrary to popular belief, student verification happens much more frequently in the educational setting than one might imagine. In addition to being verified before enrolling, student identity is checked before exams, when applying for scholarships or grants, or even when entering lecture halls or classrooms via biometrics.

In all these instances, students will benefit from a method of ID verification that is quick, safe and cost effective.