With universities across the country seeking out more ways to prevent and reduce the transmission of COVID-19 on their campuses, some of the focus has been turned to finding solutions that reduce contact points during student payment and access transactions. Card transaction system provider, TouchNet, has outlined some measures that it believes universities can take to support more contactless services on campus.

A group of colleges and universities are turning to a new, automated temperature screening technology that leverages facial recognition biometrics to ensure facility access for students who pass a daily health check. The combination biometric system is called PopEntry+ and a few institutions see potential for it to help ensure a safer return to campus life amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Campus identity solutions provider, ColorID will be hosting two upcoming webinars that will discuss some of the solutions that could help universities to transition back into a safer campus environment this fall. Specifically, the topics of online photo submission through CloudCard, and thermal temperature scanning at entryways will be discussed in detail with attendees.

Biometric solutions certainly aren’t a new concept to those working in higher education and the auxiliaries. But with concerns around hygiene and the desire to touch fewer surfaces around campus at an all-time high, the conversation could be reignited. One biometrics technology provider, Princeton Identity, is expanding its portfolio of touchless face and iris biometric offerings with an eye specifically on the university market.

One of the most common campus implementations for biometric technology is in the dining hall, where quickly sending large numbers of students through a turnstile is vital. One university that seems particularly eager to deploy biometrics in this manner is Dartmouth University, where campus dining personnel are considering a future rollout.

The Hyogo College of Medicine in Nishinomiya, Japan is using a facial-recognition biometric system to log student attendance in classrooms. As reported by The Japan Times, tablets are used to check student faces against pre-registered accounts in the biometric database, and is the first program of its kind in a Japanese university setting.

A number of universities in China have turned to biometrics to support access control to academic and residence facilities, and a new dorm at Shanghai Normal University is taking this trend to another level.

Yet another Chinese university is implementing facial recognition on its campus. The latest to join the growing trend is Beijing’s Tsinghua University, where facial recognition is being used to verify visitor identity at perimeter entrances to campus.

A number of higher education institutions in China have deployed biometric solutions for access and payments in recent months, and adding to the list is Peking University. The university has now installed facial recognition readers at perimeter access gates to control access to its Beijing campus.

A high school in Hangzhou City on the eastern coast of China is using facial recognition technology to monitor student attentiveness while in the classroom. Hangzhou Number 11 High School has installed three cameras at the front of the classroom to scan student faces every 30 seconds to analyze facial expressions and detect student moods.