With the release of iOS 12 and watchOS 5, Apple enabled support for student cards in Apple Wallet for the first time. Since then, the feature has steadily been made available at more American institutions. Students can now add their ID for the first time to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet thanks to Purdue University’s announcement that it will enable the functionality.
In a press statement on Wednesday, Purdue, which has its headquarters in West Lafayette, Indiana, announced the beginning of support for Apple Wallet. Officials from the university claim that this feature gives students “the convenience they expect while maintaining security.” Additionally, it will greatly simplify the procedure for administering new students:
“We’re thrilled to build on our on-campus experience and roll out Purdue Mobile ID to our students,” said Loribeth Hettinger, senior associate bursar of ID Card Operations/Support. “This will greatly simplify some of our bottlenecks by streamlining our ID card distribution processes to our incoming freshmen while also meeting student expectations – and even save them the time and resources they end up spending when losing a physical card.”
The ability to easily access IDs from iPhone and Apple Watch will be available to Purdue students who register their IDs to Apple Wallet. Students can hold their iPhone or Apple Watch close to a reader wherever that accepts physical student ID cards, such as dorms, restaurants, school buildings, and more, once they have added their student ID to Apple Wallet.
The new feature has also sparked interest among students:
“Using a Purdue Mobile ID makes life so much easier,” said Ohinoiyi Momoh, an undergraduate student in the College of Liberal Arts. “It’s a lot more convenient to keep on my mobile device and makes it extremely easy to get into dining courts and my residence hall. I think students will appreciate having a Purdue Mobile ID.”
In addition, Purdue is adopting digital student IDs more thoroughly than many other universities. The university will stop providing physical IDs to prospective students starting this summer, however current students will still be able to keep and use their physical cards:
Beginning this summer, all incoming undergraduate Purdue students will move to the Purdue Mobile ID and not be issued a physical ID card. This is part of the university’s Mobile First strategy, which seeks to eliminate the need for hard-copy ID cards for Purdue’s 50,000 students on the West Lafayette campus over the next few years.
On the university website, Purdue students can find out more about setting up their digital IDs in Apple Wallet. As a graduate of Indiana University, I can declare with certainty that Purdue’s support for Apple Wallet for student IDs is its sole saving grace.
