Facilitators
- Anthony F. Camilleri (KIC)
- Gyöngyi Horváth (GÉANT)
Problem statement
User identity is a transversal challenge for nearly all core use cases defined in the HEIF. The eduGAIN federation includes the vast majority of European HEIs and a big share of students and staff. However, some HEIs are not connected to eduGAIN for various reasons.
MyAcademicID was developed in the context of the European Student Card Initiative (ESCI) and it is provided by GÉANT to enable students to authenticate for their studies during mobility using their home student account via eduGAIN, connect their academic identities with their identities as natural persons (thanks to the bridge with eIDAS national nodes) and enable the once-only principle by introducing the European Student Identifier.
For institutions that are unable to affiliate to their national education and research network (NREN) the “Identity Provider of Last Resort” was deployed as a fall back solution, but is currently limited to only student mobility use cases.
Certain use cases might require additional identity attributes beyond those covered by the current SCHAC schema, which underpins eduGAIN.
Approaching the topic from a lifelong learning perspective, interoperability of user identity beyond the higher education sector will become increasingly important.
National digital (general-purpose) IDs are becoming widespread. It remains an open question whether these can best be linked to the established education-specific systems, e.g. whether they should be the foundation of identity. It needs to be considered that the speed of implementing national digital IDs compliant with EU legislation varies between Member States.
Use Cases
- User identity (UC7), which underpins most core use cases
- Institutional identity (UC8), as the basis for federation
Results
- Analysis of eduGAIN coverage, extent of HEIs missing from eduGAIN and the main reasons for that (individual and systematic ones) – May 2025
- Analysis of the main usage flows across the different use cases following the learners journey – June 2025
- Concrete proposals for enhancing eduGAIN coverage significantly, incl. alternative/fallback solutions for HEIs outside NRENs – Oct 2025
- Inventory of identity attributes that are relevant for various use cases and could be relevant for inclusion in SCHAC – Jan 2026
The latter two results should feed into the REFEDS process and other relevant coordination/decision-making fora when opportune.
