#eduTAP: Interoperability for Easy On-Site Service Access

Awarded Best Paper at EUNIS 2025, this article outlines how eduTAP leverages eduGAIN and mobile-wallet credentials to enable seamless, interoperable access to on-site campus services across Europe.

Julia arrives at her host university for her exchange semester. At the campus, her phone automatically connects to eduroam using her home institution’s login credentials. The same login allows her to access digital services through eduGAIN worldwide, such as digital library catalogs. But when she wants to buy lunch at the cafeteria or borrow a book from the library? Then she needs a campus card – typically not available upon arrival and may take several days to obtain. The promise of seamless academic mobility breaks down.  

She’s not alone. Across Europe, students and researchers move between institutions for semesters abroad, conferences, and collaborations. While accessing digital assets just works, access to on-site services remains frustratingly fragmented.  

One Credential to Rule Them All?

The European Student Card (ESC) project pursued an elegant vision: One credential to verify student status across Europe, from campus services to off-campus discounts. One card, one QR code to verify a student’s status and provide standardized access to services.  

Yet in practice, almost no service provider has adopted the ESC. Why? Because legacy systems rely on their own data formats, such as Library IDs, access credentials, and closed-loop payment systems. These established systems work well on their own, but no standard fits them all.  

A Different Path Forward

If one credential cannot rule them all, perhaps the solution isn’t finding the perfect key, but rather building a better keyring. Enter eduTAP: Instead of one unified credential for all services, your smartphone becomes the keyring, allowing you to issue the eduTAP Common ID and multiple local service passes through eduGAIN as you go and store them securely in your wallet.  

Smartphone wallets from Apple, Google, or the emerging EUDI Wallet make this possible already. For on-site services, NFC auto-presentment is the gold standard. The reader automatically requests the required pass from your phone. Whether verifying your identity, claiming discounts, or accessing facilities – it’s all just a tap away.   

Bridges, Not Replacements

eduTAP does not require universities to abandon their established systems. Campus doors, library systems, and cafeteria cashier desks can remain as they are, locally maintained and trusted. What eduTAP provides is interoperability through a chain of trust: Your home institution verifies you, eduGAIN federates that trust, and the local system can issue specific wallet credentials for the local services.  

eduGAIN, the global academic identity inter-federation, provides the foundation for this trust network. It connects thousands of institutions worldwide, allowing university members to use their home login to obtain credentials across borders. Through eduTAP, this established infrastructure extends beyond digital services into physical campus life.  

All this, while users remain in control, deciding which services to use and what data to share. Without app downloads or campus card office visits – just seamless academic mobility built on collaboration, trust, and open standards.

A Happy Ending

Back at her host university, Emma’s experience looks different now: Tapping her smartphone to pay for lunch at a discounted student rate. Another tap unlocks the library turnstile. A third grants lab access for her research project. Her phone holds multiple passes, each purpose-built and working with existing campus infrastructure, all verified through her home university’s identity.  

And when it’s time to board the train next term, she’ll activate her new campus passes along the way. By the time she arrives, everything is ready. Her academic journey knows no borders now – only destinations. Next stops: Porto, Munich, and Paris. 
 

EduTAP – no app, just tap! (Best paper in Congress EUNIS 2025)