News 
The current model of identity management, in which higher education institutions have their own organisation-based solution, does not serve the objectives and needs of continuous learning, in which learners should be able to acquire competence that meets their specific needs in a flexible and easy manner, based on the learner’s own data.
In the current situation, the identity is tied to a specific organization, and the learner cannot transfer data between organisations – they may have several different identities among which their data is dispersed. For the Digivision 2030 project, the operational target state is that each learner has one national identity and all education uses a shared identification service.
The impacts of coronavirus have also accelerated the need to address identity management challenges common to all higher education institutions, as learning has shifted widely to online teaching. At the same time, new challenges have been identified, for example foreign students have not been able to register as upcoming learners, meaning that the identification process for them has been particularly time-consuming. There are legal restrictions that apply to the use of Suomi.fi e-Identification in the higher education sector. It is only available to degree students and open university students, meaning that a large number of learners cannot use this means of identification. In general, students’ mobility and cross-institutional studies have increased, but studies completed outside the higher education institution are not currently transferred directly to the school.
The user-centred identity and access management project responds to the need for both a common national identity management system that is independent of the higher education institution and a unique lifelong learning identity identifier. These enable all learners to have access to Digivisio 2030 services and increase learner mobility. The realisation of this national learner identity and shared identification service is a prerequisite for achieving the Digivision 2030 target state.
The first phase of the project will begin in September and will run until the end of February 2022. In the first phase, the possibilities will be explored for shaping solutions based on the earlier preliminary work. In addition, the planning stage will involve work on process and operating environment descriptions, use cases, requirements and user interface protos. The aim is that by the end of the first phase it will be possible to decide on both the minimum viable product (MVP) to be implemented and the universities that will participate in the pilot phase. The preliminary plan is that the introduction of a broader identity management and access management solution would begin in spring 2023.
The project is being implemented in close cooperation with higher education institutions, and the project team is currently seeking out partial implementation resources from higher education institutions. The project also gives central place to cooperation with several national and international identity management projects.
Further information:
Tiina Maltusch, Digivision 2030, Project Manager tiina.maltusch@csc.fi
Link to the Wiki https://wiki.eduuni.fi/x/BrpnCw