More than 180,000 students enrolled in Berlin's universities in the Autumn of 2016. In order to ease the burden on the student administration offices, six Berlin universities participated in a joint project in 2014, with the aim of introducing self-service kiosks for the instant issuance of student cards.

In addition, the universities wanted to offer to students, additional, innovative functionalities with the card, which were made possible by this new electronic system. Deployed in Autumn 2016, the campuscard provides access control, a loan card for the university library, an electronic wallet for the cafeteria as well as a bus and train ticket.