European Student Card (ESC)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is focused on the functionality of issuing a European student card together with ISIC cards.
In this course, you will learn all the information on how to set up the issue, as well as where important information about the ESC card.

A prerequisite for this course: https://gtsalive.atlassian.net/l/cp/dcu2fKbT


ESC - European Student Card for ISIC holders

The European Student Card is a card that is intended to facilitate communication with universities for students who are going to join the Erasmus program. Thanks to the card, the students will have access to the Erasmus+ mobile application where they can handle all the administrative requirements associated with Erasmus. Also, they gain access to online courses and services provided by other higher education institutions. In the future, the European Student Card will allow students to participate in cultural activities and events throughout Europe at a student price.

 

Integration of the European Student Card (ESC) into the Alive Platform

The aim of this project is to integrate the automatic issuance of the European Student Card to students of universities that cooperate with the ESC. When ordering a new ISIC card, only one card will be issued to such students, which will contain all the data of the ISIC card and the ESC card. Each university involved in the Erasmus+ program will get access to the ESC platform, which is an administrative interface where the school can set its data, get identification numbers and instructions by the ESC and at the same time view the overview of the ESC cards issued under the given school.

 

The European Student Card Project - Presentation for Institutions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K910X1EWnVQ

First steps to issue ESC:

For the issuance of ESC, it is necessary to have a special design approved by ISO, which you will use for issuing ISIC. The new ESC designs must include:

  • ESI placeholder

  • QR code containing a specific URL

  • ESC logo

You can read more about creating new designs in a separate course.

https://gtsalive.atlassian.net/l/cp/dcu2fKbT

IMPORTANT: Issuing ESC is not possible without providing the email and personal ID of the student applying for the card. ESC can only be issued for ISIC cards.

The validity of each ESC card is linked to the validity of the ISIC card.

If the ISIC card is no longer valid, the ESC card is not valid either. In this case, data export to ESC is no longer in progress.

If the ISIC card validity is extended, the ESC card validity is automatically extended as well.

In case you don’t use ISIC card extension, you can issue a new ISIC card to the same cardholder. Alive Platform checks the validity of active cards and sets the ESC validity according the ISIC card which is the furthest in the future. Example:
A cardholder has an ISIC with validity until 31/12/2022 and a linked ESC card with the same validity. You issue a new ISIC card to the cardholder with validity until 31/12/2023. The ESC card number stays the same, but its validity is prolonged until 31/12/2023.

 

The uniqueness of the personal ID

Issuing ESC is not possible without providing the email and personal ID of the student applying for the card. ESC can only be issued for ISIC cards. A student's personal ID must always be unique and must not be duplicated with another student. Personal ID must not contain letters with diacritics.

Publisher Settings

On the NCDB issuer detail, you will find a new checkbox "Issuing ESC cards". This option will only be available to College/University publishers. After ticking the checkbox, the exclusive representative will be required to fill in the following data:

 

 

  • PIC - school identification number - validation for the number of characters (9), only digits.

  • API key for ALIVE Platform sESC communication.

  • sHO (school domain) to create a unique student number within the ESC platform. 

 

Institutions -> Update my institution -> Institution PIC

 

New placeholders on card design

The following ESC placeholders have to be added to the card design:

  • QR code

  • ESI (European Student Identifier)- student identification code in the form: urn:schac:personalUniqueCode:int:esi:<schoolDomain>:<studentCode>

  • ESC logo

QR code

Use the existing QR code functionality to insert a QR code. When creating the QR code on the card design, you add the parameter: "ESC_CARD_URL" to the QR code.

It consists of the given URL in front, followed by the ESCN (card number).

After scanning the QR code, the student or institution will be redirected to the ESC website where they can verify the validity of their ID card.

The minimum size of the QR code on the card is 15x15 mm, it can also be displayed on the back of the card.

 

ESI (European Student Identifier)

  • Student identifier number

  • The ESC logo must be present on the first page of the card.

Example of how to set the design correctly with logo and placeholders:

 

Issuance of a new ESC card

Issuing ISIC with ESC is possible in several ways:

  • NCDB order

  • API

  • NCDB excel import

Issuing takes place in the classic way that you are used to. An ESC card is automatically issued to the ISIC card.

ESC card details and Export details

  • On the details of the card in the "Card Data" section, the ESC Card Number (ESCN), ESC card status and ESC card export status will be displayed.

  • In the "Holder data" section, the ESC student ID (ESI) field will be displayed.

Issuance of an ESC card to already existing ISIC cards

Two new buttons are added on the publisher detail that has ESC publishing enabled:

 

List of holders without ESC

After clicking, an .xlsx file will be generated with a list of ISIC card holders under the given issuer whose ISIC card expiry date is in the future.

Displayed fields: holder ID, first name, last name, card number, card validity until, e-mail address, personal ID.

The list will be sorted by holder ID in descending order.

On this overview, the user can see whether the listed cardholders have complete data and, if necessary, will be able to supplement them using standard methods (editing in the NCDB, API, etc.).

Issuance of ESC cards

The user will be able to request the issuance of ESC cards for holders who already have complete data (e-mail address and personal ID) and for whom an ESC card has not yet been issued.

 

Monitoring of unsuccessful export

On the Dashboard of NCDB, there is a section called “External system export state”. Within the section, you can see how many expots into ESC failed.

 

The text is clickable, so after clicking, the list of specific cards with unsuccessful ESC export is displayed.

In the detail of each card, the reason for unsuccessful export is described using short information.

 

After the reason for unsuccessful export is solved (for example worng ESC credentials are corrected), the ESC cards are reexported automatically.