InAcademia is a service aimed at commercial organisations to securely validate the academic affiliation of users that wish to benefit from discounted services and products, and provides a facility for Institutions to ensure their users’ privacy is protected in such scenarios, leveraging the eduGAIN interfederation.
The team operating the InAcademia Service at GÉANT, SUNET and ULAKBIM have recently announced a new development in the form of a new plugin that allows online shop owners (using the WordPress and WooCommerce platforms) to quickly and easily implement an ‘I’m a Student’ feature at store checkout that is powered by the InAcademia service. This is a low-code implementation option that makes it possible to enable the InAcademia verification service into any WooCommerce store, removing the need for merchants to use less privacy preserving methods of student verification.
Student Discount for WooCommerce is now available in the WordPress Plugin Directory, which allows businesses across Europe to validate users’ entitlement to special discounts and deals within their existing online store infrastructure. The plugin is targeted at small- to medium-sized businesses and is accompanied by a new online subscription facility that onboards new businesses and allows them to pay for and access the core InAcademia service. This will be administered by GÉANT using its own/existing WordPress implementation in combination with the Stripe credit card payment gateway that collects subscription payments in a PCI DSS-compliant manner.
The new plugin offers a new sales channel for InAcademia to reach potential customers, and an easier-to-onboard version of the product, where the merchant isn’t required to host its own OIDC client: merchants can simply install a notice or button into a pre-existing WooCommerce-based web shop, and the plugin does the work for them.
