Mizter T wrote:

Only some institutions are participating in online Student Oystercard
applications, but I'm sure the number will go up. You have to send them
a digital photo - is that one supplied by your uni, say the same one
they use on your uni student card - or can you provide one of your own?

I suspect one would have to provide their own. At a lot of universities it's
the students' union who administer the verification (although I think TfL
are able to subsequently get the Registry to cross reference and confirm
students on the lists) and for many SUs it's easier to get blood out of a
stone than enrolment data from a Registry.

It does sound a bit wasteful that you can't renew your Student
Oystercard - but that said the system does need to remain as secure and
fraudproof as possible. There would be a massive queue of non-student
lining up to take advantage of any vulnerability and benefit from the
30% discount. The non-renewability probably counters the possibility of
such fraud.

I could accept this *if* they would still allow the transfer of balances
over. (Maybe they do - the last time I asked they refused.)

Incidentally, I've never actually inspected a Student Oyster closely -
alongside the photo what else does it have printed on it - name, expiry
date, university attended?

Mine just has my photo and name (with only the first initial), plus on the
back card numbers. The separate photo card from 2004-2005 has "valid from"
and "expires", as well as "College" although this only displays the
institution's TfL code.