Contactless Student IDs on iPhone and Apple Watch Now Available for Santa Clara University Students

Students at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California are now able to add their ACCESS student IDs to the Wallet app on the iPhone and the Apple Watch, allowing their devices to be used to access buildings, attend athletic events, purchase meals, check out library books, and more.

contactlessstudentid
Once a student ID card has been added into the Wallet app, students can use an ‌iPhone‌ or Apple Watch in lieu of a physical card by holding their device near a reader. The contactless student ID can be used anywhere the physical ID card is required.

Santa Clara University is located close to Apple's Cupertino headquarters, and it was one of the universities that worked with Apple and partner company Transact during the pilot program for contactless student IDs.

SCU expects that most of its 5,500 undergraduate students will be using the mobile student ID system by the end of the year.

Apple first announced plans to bring contactless student IDs to ‌iPhone‌ and Apple Watch at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference, and rolled out the first IDs in October 2018.

Since then, Apple has added additional universities to the program, and participants include Marshall University, Clemson University, Duke University, University of Oklahoma, University of Alabama, Georgetown University, University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky, University of San Francisco, University of Vermont, Arkansas State University, South Dakota State University, Norfolk State University, Louisburg College, University of North Alabama, and Chowan University.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
apple tv hd

Apple Launched Its Big New Vision for TV 10 Years Ago Today

Thursday October 30, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device. The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...

Top Rated Comments

konqerror Avatar
74 months ago

Is there any way available to contact this feature for personal use? For instance, could I make an app for a private club, add that club's membership card to the wallet app, and use it to open magnetically locked doors, pay member dues, etc? Or is this feature set not available to devs?
Yes, via NFC enabled passes. You can do it yourself or there's third-party services to simplify it.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
konqerror Avatar
74 months ago

how do you do this? I have a contactless card and cannot find any way to do this ...

Include me, I like to know how you do this.
On an iPhone of course...
No endorsements:
https://passninja.com/
https://passkit.com/
https://www.passsource.com/
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
konqerror Avatar
74 months ago

So you did not access buildings there, attend athletic events, purchase meals, and more? Do not, others do it.
Locks on campus doors have become much more prevalent in recent years both due to "security incidents" and actually increased awareness of the sensitivity of research data and IP.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Z400Racer37 Avatar
74 months ago
Is there any way available to contact this feature for personal use? For instance, could I make an app for a private club, add that club's membership card to the wallet app, and use it to open magnetically locked doors, pay member dues, etc? Or is this feature set not available to devs?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
auburnfan24 Avatar
74 months ago

Yes, via NFC enabled passes. You can do it yourself or there's third-party services to simplify it.
how do you do this? I have a contactless card and cannot find any way to do this ...
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
justperry Avatar
74 months ago

Yes, via NFC enabled passes. You can do it yourself or there's third-party services to simplify it.

how do you do this? I have a contactless card and cannot find any way to do this ...
Include me, I like to know how you do this.
On an iPhone of course...




I already use my watch for the vending machine at work. It would be nice to also be able to use it for building access.
That's ApplePay (I think), different animal.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)