Biometrics-based access control and authentication could prove vital in helping South African universities to stay secure, say senior Safran staff.Nicolas Garcia, Senior Manager at Morpho South Africa, noted in a recent statement that while security is a top priority at all international higher education institutions, it is possibly more so in South Africa, where protest action, violence and arson (among other concerns) have posed risks to students' safety and university property in recent months.On campuses around the country, protest action has caused extensive damage to a number of institutions. Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande said recently that 2015/16 protest action had cost universities at least R300 million in damage to property.Garcia says: “The biggest threat to tertiary intuitions today is controlling access to unknown individuals.” To curb the risk of attacks and protests instigated by outsiders, institutions must know who accesses the campus, at what time, and event where they are and when they leave.Linda Glieman, GM Client Services at Morpho partner company Impro Technologies, says: “The problem with traditional card access is that anyone carrying that card is able to enter the campus. Students lose their tags and often go for days without reporting it or needing to access the facility, which creates a security risk.”Managing access effectively for the vast number of students is challenging, and the only way to ensure that the correct person enters the campus is via biometrics, because biometrics can't be shared, lost or forgotten,” says Glieman.Not only does biometrics allow for foolproof access control, it also presents opportunities for tertiary institutions to build on biometrics authentication systems for systems beyond security, such as payments and exam control.Glieman says: “Exam entrance control is still in its infancy when it comes to biometric access, but educational institutions are starting to embark on implementing solutions to control access to these venues. The problem historically has been that these are not fixed venues and therefore installing hardware in the venue for exam purposes was not practical, speed of access is another barrier to adopting a controlled solution. However, with the introduction of mobile biometrics in the form of mobile readers and tablets this can now become a reality.”

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