Running the centre
Access control
Access control is the system that decides who can enter a building or an area and records when they did: keys, cards, codes, readers or staff on the door. In a student residence it separates residents from visitors and protects areas such as kitchens, plant rooms or residents-only floors.
Also known asentry control · card access · turnstile · door access
The parts and the decisions
Every access control system answers three questions: who you are (a card, a code, a face), whether you can go through that door at that time, and what gets recorded. The second is where community life is at stake: what time the front door closes, whether visitors can go up to the rooms, which floors are for residents only. That is set by the residence's rules and its visitor policy; the system only applies it. Keys and key cards are the physical part.
Entry logs are personal data, and some systems go further. If the residence wants entry by fingerprint or facial recognition, it is processing biometric data, a special category under the GDPR. The Spanish Data Protection Agency's guide of November 2023 requires, for access control that is not for employment purposes, showing that it is necessary and, if it relies on consent, offering another way in with no consequence at all for anyone who does not want to use the biometric one. Cameras at the entrance have their own rules: video surveillance.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that access control tells you who is inside. It tells you who went through the door with their card. Whoever follows someone else in, leaves through the car park or lends their card does not show up. To know who is sleeping in the building you also need the absence log.
Sources
Related terms
- Keys and key cardsA residence's keys and key cards are the physical means by which each person opens their room, the front door and the areas they are allowed into. Managing them means handing them out, recording who has which, lending the master key, cancelling lost ones and collecting them at move-out.
- Visitor policyA visitor policy is the set of rules in a hall of residence or student residence about who may come in without living there: at what times, to which areas, whether they must sign in, who answers for the visitor and whether anyone may stay overnight. It is usually part of the rules of conduct.