N U S SMART CARD SYSTEM
NUS earned the distinction of becoming the first tertiary institution in the
Asia-Pacific region to have a campus-wide smart card system. The entire
22,000 strong campus community have been issued with personalised smart
cards which are used for identification purposes as well as for a wide range
of functions such as for the loan of books in the University libraries,
booking of sports and recreation facilities, canteen transactions at the
Halls of Residence, and secured access to major facilities in NUS round the
clock, including research laboratories, computer clusters and resource
centres. The use of smart cards for physical access control to key
facilities on campus, in particular, is expected to increase NUS research
productivity tremendously by enabling laboratories to remain accessible
round the clock and yet ensuring security for the expensive equipment housed
within.
The recent extension of the NUS personalised staff and student smartcards into the national CashCard system mean that the use of our staff and student cards can now be extended beyond the campus environment to nationwide payment of goods and services, such as cashless payments at CashCard participating retailers, fast-food outlets, petrol stations, public telephones, vending machines, car parks and eventually possibly for public transport and the Electronic Road Pricing system as well.
