Campus card, a student identity card integrated with services available on college and university campuses across China, is growing in popularity as well as improving management of services at post-secondary institutions.

The card bears such information as a student number, photo identification and other registration information. It also gives students the ability to access services around their particular school.

"Instead of carrying separate ID, debit, ATM and library cards, my college life has been significantly simplified by carrying a single card," said Xiao Wang, a student of the Chinese Literature Department of Sun Yat-Sen University, in South China's Guangdong Province.

Xiao Wang and his fellow students now can use the card across campus to purchase goods, show identification, check out books or pay for photocopying at the library, or simply use it as a meal card.

"The efficiency of campus management has been improved with the introduction of campus cards," said Sun Yat-Sen University Vice-President Xu Jiarui, adding that it is easier to check student identification with the card.

Ning Aihua, chairman of the board of the Synjones Corporation which supplies campus cards for Sun Yat-Sen University, said they would further expand the campus card programme to provide more services to the students such as dormitory access, school attendance checks and medical care.

Ning's corporation, occupying 70 per cent of the national campus card market, has issued 70 million campus cards.

The banking sector is also a major driving force behind the burgeoning development of campus cards.

(China Daily 09/18/2003 page3)