The University of Texas at Austin says it plans to roll out digital student IDs, usable in the Apple Wallet app, starting with the 2027-2028 school year.
Apple announced support for digital student ID cards in Apple Wallet at WWDC 2018. The feature rolled out in September of the same year, with the iOS 12 and watchOS 12 updates, and has since been used by various institutions of higher education.
The University of Texas at Austin is now set to join the likes of Johns Hopkins and Purdue, as it has launched a digital ID initiative, set to be implemented in 2027.
The announcement, available on the UT website, states that the initiative is "in the feedback and discovery phase, with design and development to follow."
If ultimately implemented, the UT digital IDs will be delivered via the MyUT platform to students' Apple Wallets and Android Wallets. The new digital IDs will provide access to "buildings, campus dining and retail, event entry, library services, and more," per the University's announcement.
The reasoning behind the move is two-fold. In short, it aligns with the needs and preferences of modern-day UT students, who have requested digital IDs since 2019, while also serving as a cost-cutting measure with added security.
To illustrate that students and young adults would rather use digital IDs, as opposed to physical cards, the University of Texas cited a 2025 report by the Federal Reserve Financial Services.
The report in question says that "Adults aged 18 to 24 were more likely than any other age group to pay with a mobile phone, using them for 45% of all payments."
Given the security and convenience of a digital ID system for students, we can expect additional universities to follow suit. Universities will also benefit by saving money in the long run, as they won't have to issue or maintain physical cards anymore.
