The implementation of Universal Electronic Cards (UEC) is highly popular today. This article describes the possibility of using UECs as campus cards in Ukrainian higher education institutions and universities. So, what kind of beast is this “campus card,” why do universities need them, and how should they be applied — specifically within an Access Control System (ACS)?
ACS IN THE CAMPUS: UKRAINIAN REALITIES AND EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE
Campus (from the English campus) – a university town that includes educational buildings, research institutes, student housing, libraries, auditoriums, cafeterias, etc. The word campus has Latin origins. Most frequently, European university campuses (especially when it comes to universities with centuries-old history) represent practically a full-fledged “city within a city” — many of them, in addition to their own territory, even have an administrative and financial system separated from the rest of the city, and the jurisdiction of the municipal police does not always extend to the campus territory.
Ukrainian universities and higher education institutions, with very rare exceptions, cannot boast territorial isolation “like in Europe,” so in our country, a campus is understood not so much as a territory, but rather as a group of buildings and structures belonging to a single institution. Most often, these buildings are scattered over a fairly large area — it is not uncommon for them to even be located in different cities. This territorial fragmentation is a very important feature of Ukrainian campuses, particularly for access control systems.
CAMPUS APPLICATIONS
Let us move on to campus applications, basing our overview once again on European experience.
They can be conventionally divided into 2 types:
- identification-based;
- payment, transit, and others.
The first type includes various automation systems (dean’s office, library, clinic), electronic ID documents (student and library cards, grade books, university clinic cards, etc.), and electronic signatures, as well as logical access systems (to information resources of the intra-university network). The core part of such systems is “mathematics,” meaning the software and databases, and the presence of compatible readers is required only for reading campus cards (which are used exclusively as an identifier).
The second type includes banking applications, cashless payment systems inside and outside the university, “electronic wallets,” and city transit applications. These make much broader use of specialized equipment: readers with card read/write capabilities, terminals, kiosks, etc., and the card operates in such systems not merely as an identifier, but most frequently as a data carrier that updates as the card is used. Let us also add international student discount systems here (which technologically are identification applications, but their scope of operation lies outside the campus rather than inside it, and in terms of their intended purpose, they are also closer to payment solutions).
I have intentionally excluded the ACS from this list, because it does not strictly have to belong to the list of identification applications.
Diagram: Topology of a campus ACS
Explaining this will be easiest using the example of developing a general concept for building an access control system for the campus of a hypothetical higher education institution. Based on this concept, it will already be possible to create a detailed technical specification for the ACS, determine the calendar implementation schedule, establish the order of interaction between different campus applications, etc. (Within the scope of this article, we will, of course, not reach the stage of developing a technical specification or let alone a blueprint design, and that is not necessary).
General Concept of ACS in Campuses
In our baseline data, we have:
1. The ACS must be part of a single campus-wide project and must utilize campus cards (this is a mandatory requirement for a system claiming the title of “Campus ACS”).
2. The campus composition includes several educational and laboratory buildings, cafeterias and dining points, dormitories, a sports complex, a clinic, a library, and a cultural center. A small portion of the buildings are architecturally linked and share a single perimeter, while the other buildings are located at significant distances from one another. Additionally, the university has branch divisions in other cities.
3. The number of users is approximately 15,000 – 20,000 people.
The goals of creating a general ACS concept are:
- Defining the procedure and technology for using campus cards within the ACS.
- Determining the tasks to be solved by the ACS, as well as the depth of its deployment inside the campus, with the elaboration of long-term system expansion plans.
- Determining the level and order of mutual integration between various campus applications and the ACS.
As you can see, both in the baseline data and among the goals of creating an ACS concept, the questions related to campus cards occupy the top positions. This is the most crucial and fundamental part of the task, and the entire subsequent course of developing the concept will depend on the decisions made by the customer regarding this point.
—
A. V. Katrenko
Commercial Director
“Smart Security” (Russia)
To be continued with options for using campus cards in an ACS in the next article…
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