Student IDs Go Mobile in Apple Wallet

(image via Apple)

Apple is now bringing university student cards into its digital wallet platform, announcing that it has teamed up with multiple schools to enable students to use their iPhone or Apple Watch as a student card.

Such functionality is now available for students at Duke University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Oklahoma. According to a statement from Apple, students at these institutions can now use their Apple Wallet “to pay quickly and easily for laundry, coffee or lunch, and even get into their dorms, the gym or the school library.”

The development appears to be the result, at least in part, of a collaboration between Apple and HID Global announced this past June. An access control specialist, HID Global offers solutions including an NFC-based mobile keycard system that lets users unlock doors by waving their phone in front of a card reader.

But the system is also clearly more than just an access control solution, with students’ prepaid accounts also being linked to their mobile ID cards in the Apple Wallet. As such, it’s the latest example of Apple’s ongoing effort to build its digital wallet and Apple Pay platforms, which can also now integrate everything from plane tickets to loyalty cards.

As for student IDs, Apple says that it’s also working with Johns Hopkins University, Santa Clara University, and Temple University to integrate their student cards into its digital wallet as well, and expects these efforts to be complete by the end of the current school year.