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First day at university in China now means a face scan to enrol

  • At Tsinghua University in Beijing, more than 3,800 new undergraduate students were processed using face-scanning machines

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People walk near the gate of Tsinghua University in Beijing. Photo: Reuters
Sarah Daiin Beijing

Back-to-school season in China’s universities has become another example of how facial recognition technology is now part of people’s everyday lives, just like social media, mobile payments and online shopping already are.

A growing number of universities are now extending their use of facial recognition to the enrolment registration process, after its initial adoption in applications such as security and recording students’ attendance.

China’s elite Tsinghua University is among the first batch of large academic institutions that have implemented face scans to expedite the enrolment process this month, when the school welcomed more than 3,800 new undergraduate students at its campus in Beijing. The regular academic year in the country starts in September, though many institutions may hold orientations beforehand.

The university deployed an array of face-scanning machines at designated registration points, which has made enrolment “smarter and more convenient” for both students and the university staff involved in the process, according to the system’s provider, Zhejiang Uniview Technologies, in a social media post on Tuesday.

At the back-end of the university’s facial recognition platform, administrative staff can verify each student’s information and keep headcount, according to Uniview, which is the third largest video surveillance systems supplier in China.

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