This year’s European Campus Card Association (ECCA) conference has highlighted great progress in the industry, according to Danny Smith, vice president of ColorID, the only attendee from North America at this year’s event.

“It is really interesting to see the common challenges between the US and the European card programmes,” says Smith. “We´re still trying to maximise the available card system technologies to its fullest. Our European counterparts face similar systems limitations and obstacles.

"In North America, the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) has done a tremendous job promoting and encouraging card system development by bringing institutional and corporate members together. The ECCA has taken a similar approach in this direction and it is really evident with the European Education Connectivity Solution (EECS) project.

"While there are many common characteristics between the European and North American card systems, there are also significant differences. For instance, it would be the exception to see a magnetic stripe on a student ID card in Europe. Most schools are using contact or contactless technologies and in some cases, both. Most of the contactless technology is MIFARE. Also some countries, such as Croatia, Poland and Hungary, have national university ID cards that are mandated by their government.”

Next year the ECCA conference will be held in Croatia, hosted by the University of Zagreb.