Instant digital phone access provides university students with instant secure access, along with a host of other benefits as well.
Australian universities are brimming with students and staff. The hallways and cafes are packed. There’s the heady confusion of excitement, expectations, projects, laughter and the inevitable touch of stress when deadlines are due.
These young people are lapping up what’s probably the most exciting and freedom-facing time of their lives. They’re on the cusp of taking their place in the world as professionals. And their expectations are high.
From an early age, Gen Z has learnt to live in two worlds simultaneously –their regular analogue world and their instantaneous digital world.
Both inform the other.
For Gen Z, their days are strongly focused on personal engagement. But speed too. So when things IRL (in real life) don’t work exactly “on-demand” – that instant fingertip control they’ve come to expect from their iPad, socials or Google searches – you can sense a tad of impatience.
Gen Z expects their phone to open up their analogue world – seamlessly.
When they want access to a building or their classrooms on campus, the HID Mobile Access allows them to gain access by simply “tap” or “twist & go” with mobile device to get authentication, and bingo they’re in.
For campuses with heavy student traffic, multiple, sometimes oversubscribed courses and hundreds if not thousands of academic and facilities support people, hearing that single ping, granting all these people instant – and secure – access, is one of the big bonuses of the modern digital world.
HID Mobile Access can provide instant access to any of these areas and including secured parking areas and services such as vending machine, printing station and classes.
Their phones are personal too – they connect to friends, family, music, information and social media.
And while plastic cards are sometimes lost, damaged or stolen, Gen Z is never careless with their phones. They rarely, if ever, lose sight of them.
So an interoperable mobile access system that gives them an open door to their campus world is the one accessory they make sure they always carry around.
The real estate world gets it
Facilities and security directors in the real estate sector understand the power of seamless connected digital systems for their business.
With sometimes very large property portfolios – perhaps with thousands of tenants to manage – it’s increasingly a must to provide connected secure access for their employees and tenants.
Among real estate companies that have already embraced HID Mobile Access are Charter Hall in Australia, British Land, UK and Belgian based developer Ghelamco. At 7 World Trade Center in New York, Silverstein Properties has introduced Employee Badge in Apple Wallet for staff and tenants.
Student experience at the heart
But when it comes to universities and the young people entrusted to these institutions, experience and need become acutely more personal.
Mano Soler, asset and security manager at one of Spain’s most prestigious universities, Les Roches Marbella, says “the student experience comes above all else”. And not just for its own sake, but as a life learning experience.
“It is our main driver and the reason we embrace and foster innovation — because innovation makes our students’ lives easier and supports their wellbeing through secure technology,” Soler says.
“The students will eventually leave this campus and, in turn, take that know-how and excellence into the world with them.’’
Studies have found that mobile access improves student engagement. This makes sense as instant access signals the students are part of modern smart facility that cares for their needs and protects their security.
They also feel more connected.
Security and facility managers can contribute to sustainability goals
Flip to the security and facilities managers at universities. Mobile access systems can give them opportunities for huge savings on thousands of plastic cards they no longer have to source, print, replace. That means much less printing, packaging, inks and other waste associated with legacy systems.
It means security people are able to send several ticks up the line to the sustainability reporting mangers who these days often sit in the finance department; something to further sweeten the savings in cost.
It’s good news that will likely reach the Vice Chancellor’s office and ethically minded supporters and stakeholders of the university. For students it’s a sign that they’re at an institution that aligns with their values for a more sustainable, better world.
Admin staff
Administrative staff also benefit with the opportunity for contactless enrolment – no more long queues and staffing to manage the queues on day one of the semester.
And while HID’s mobile access solutions meet the material and physical access needs of the university’s varied population they also raise productivity.
Admin and students no longer need to mess around with time wasting replacement cards. HID’s cloud-based credential management platform also mean that credential provisioning and deprovisioning can be fast and stress free as the process can be done anytime and anywhere.
When it comes down to it, for Gen Z – but also for so many other people – a smart phone is not only possibly their most important possession, but also one that opens up the world, at the touch of a button.
No wonder mobile access is now the new “must have”.
Download this ebook to answer more questions on mobile access: Mobile Access Higher Ed eBook (hidglobal.com)
