CEnet participates in the National Schools USI pilot

​​​During 2021, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) engaged each of the K-12 schools jurisdictions, including the Catholic sector, to undertake a pilot of the National Schools Unique Student Identifier (USI) platform.

The National Schools USI initiative supports the National School Reform Agreement that calls for a USI to be issued to all school students by the end of 2023, and also informs decisions about how the National Schools USI could work if it were to progress to a national rollout in 2023.

Recognised as a key provider of IT services across our sector, NCEC, via the state and territory Catholic education commissions in NT (CENT) and NSW (CS NSW), sought CEnet’s assistance in the preliminary planning, and technical engagement of the National Schools USI pilot project.

CEnet's involvement in this programme considered all CEnet members, placing emphasis on integrating CEnet's existing enterprise identifier, and identity management systems with the National Schools USI platform. This includes integration with the existing Catholic Education Identifier (CeId'er) provided through CEnet.

This work has resulted in a National Schools USI enterprise integration, and one that has been developed for use by all CEnet Member dioceses. This will assist greatly with issuing a USI to students within the CEnet network, and in turn, surface the USI locally to schools within each local Student Information System.

This puts the CEnet membership in a good position to further engage in the roll-out of the USI.

At a local level, there are a few things CEnet Member dioceses can do to help prepare each system of schools for the USI roll-out:

1. Become familiar with the National Schools USI and its purpose.
2. Ensure that at the local level, CEnet's existing local identifier (CeId'er) is managed consistently, noting that a local identifier is a key attribute for the issuance of a national USI.
3. Place emphasis on the importance of data cleanliness in source systems, with particular focus on the data inside your Student Information Systems.
4. Consider the potential for engaging in a national schools USI roll-out with your schools in the near term.

The roll-out of the National Schools USI is subject to further discussion and approval at the national level by the Education Ministers. For further information on CEnet’s involvement in this initiative, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!