Apple Wants Your Student ID Card to Live on Your iPhone

With the launch of digital student ID cards currently being developed by Apple, the need for physical identification might soon be eliminated.

Using Near-Field Communications technology, students will just have to wave their iPhone or Apple Watch near compatible readers to access residence halls, eat at the dining halls, get in the gym or borrow a library book.

Apple has already been working with Blackboard and six universities to bring their idea into reality, including Duke, Johns Hopkins, Santa Clara University, Temple University, the University of Alabama and the University of Oklahoma.

The digital student IDs will be part of Apple Wallet and linked to Apple Pay, and is expected to go live at the participating six universities  for the 2018 fall semester.

A spokesperson for Blackboard confirmed the partnership and reported that the digital student IDs would offer students “heightened security and extraordinary convenience” on campus.

Tracy Futhey, chief information officer for Duke expressed the university’s excitement for the new feature on Twitter.

Author:
Gigi Foster is a student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She's a midfielder on the women's soccer team and is studying ocean sciences.