What is the ESCN and how can my institution obtain it?

Owned by ESC.support
19 Jun 24
1 min read

The European Student Card Number (ESCN) is a unique card identifier of 16 bytes which involves the HEI PIC code using a specific algorithm that guarantees its uniqueness.

It serves to link a specific card to the specific HEI who produced it and to identify a card.

The ESCN is used to generate the QR code for student card validation.

There are three different paths for the generation of the ESCN depending on your institution

  1. Your institution runs the card management system (CMS)
    To obtain the ESCN, your institution must download the European Student Card Number (ESCN) generator from the European Student Card-Router (ESC-R) and integrate it into the Card Management System (CMS).

  2. Your institution has an external CMS provider
    To obtain the ESCN, your institution must download the European Student Card Number (ESCN) generator from the European Student Card-Router (ESC-R) and request the integration of the ESCN generator to your CMS providers.

  3. Your institution does not run a CMS
    To obtain the ESCN, your institution must import the list of student attributes manually in the ESC-R. The ESC-R will then be able to generate automatically the ESCNs.