Identity verification for education

What schools and universities ask of identity checks

When teaching moves online, the register is a login. The institution still has to be able to say that the person who was admitted is the person who does the coursework and sits the assessment. That starts with a careful check at enrolment, when a document and a face are collected. Cohorts are large and international, and applicants include people under and over the usual age.

• Verify new students with a document and a live face at enrolment.
• Accept the documents international students hold, and show the service in their language.
• Find an applicant who enrols twice under different names.
• Choose how long the personal data is kept, within the minimum periods that apply to you.

The flow

1. Cohort invitation. The admissions office creates single-use links, from 1 to 1,000 at once, and sends each admitted student one. A student who opens the link on a laptop can finish on a phone with a QR code.
2. Enrolment document. The student photographs a passport, national ID card, residence permit or visa. The document is read and checked for fraud.
3. Selfie and active liveness. The selfie is matched to the document portrait, and the student moves the face through two ovals. The date of birth is compared with the age window in the scenario, which is configurable from 16 to 100.
4. Duplicate applicants. Repeat-user search looks for the same face among earlier verified users.
5. Result. The platform reads the session status or receives a webhook, and your own rule decides whether the enrolment goes ahead.
6. Data. Retention is a setting you choose per scenario, within the minimum periods and privacy obligations that apply to you, with erasure on request by API, a confirmation webhook and an erasure log.

Modules used

• Document verification, face verification and liveness.
• Repeat-user search, described on the face verification page.
• Web SDK and widget: 29 interface languages, one-time links and QR hand-off.
• Webhooks and the REST API to connect the learning platform.
• Data protection for retention and erasure controls.

Regulatory frame

One example from a primary text: a United States federal regulation, section 602.17 of Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which sets out how the agency that reviews an institution applies its standards.

• Section 602.17 of Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations, in paragraph (g), has the agency require institutions to have processes in place through which the institution establishes that a student who registers in any course offered via distance education or correspondence is the same student who academically engages in the course or program.
• Paragraph (h) has the agency make clear in writing that institutions must use processes that protect student privacy and notify students of any projected additional student charges associated with the verification of student identity at the time of registration or enrollment.

This block describes the text, not our service. For information; not legal advice.

Sources

• Title 34 of the US Code of Federal Regulations, section 602.17, electronic Code of Federal Regulations, fetched 27 October 2026.

Next

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