BQu TMS launches biometric student attendance system

BQu TMS has announced the launch of its cloud-based biometric Student Attendance Management System (SAMS), designed specifically to support higher education institutions to comply with United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) requirements for managing and documenting student attendance.

Reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, applicants outside the European Economic Area or Switzerland granted permission to stay in the UK for more than 6 months must now apply for a biometric residence permit. The UKBA has been rolling out biometric resident permits to different visa categories over the last four years and suggests these new measures will help to combat illegal immigration, abuse of the immigration system and the misuse of public funds.

In addition, organizations that are unable to provide acceptable evidence of attendance in accordance with sponsor duties could lose “Highly Trusted Status,” which allows institutions to sponsor students from outside the EU to come to the UK to study.

The BQu SAMS system has been design to be compliant with this UKBA regulation and according to the company, has already seen success in the private education sector.

The SAMS uses fingerprint scanners for students to register for a contact event and a central control dashboard provides instant information on any late of missing students. High, medium and low risk categories aid the ability of the responsible staff to ensure they can provide reports and evidence when required.

Solutions involving sign in sheets, registers and magnetic swipe card systems are costly solutions left open to abuse and error, and biometrics is becoming the de-facto standard, though deployment is not always easy.

Reported in BiometricUpdate.com, students at Newcastle University recently voted to reject biometric measures proposed to monitor course attendance on the school campus.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  fingerprint scanner  |  fingerprint verification  |  time and attendance  |  verification  |  workforce management