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Passport Alliance Passport Alliance

Universities as Trust Anchors

Strategic Rationale

Universities are a strong early trust-anchor segment for APIS because they already operate mature identity federations, have governance pressure, and are actively deploying agentic systems.

Why Universities Fit

  1. Existing federation maturity: higher education has long experience with multi-organization identity trust.
  2. Active agent adoption: AI agents are moving into advising, research, and operations.
  3. Policy pressure: accreditation and risk controls require better auditability and accountability.

Suggested Participation Model

Universities can participate as:

  • certified issuers for institutional and research domains
  • registered issuers for scoped pilot programs
  • verifier-only members during early rollout

Scope Controls for Campus Issuers

University issuers should publish explicit limits:

  • domain scope (research, operations, student support)
  • data sensitivity scope (public, internal, regulated)
  • sub-delegation and mandate depth policy

Phase 1: Observe

Require passports for participating agents and log issuer/principal/delegate evidence.

Phase 2: Controlled Delegation

Adopt strict mandates with limited scope and tight expiration windows.

Phase 3: Federation

Share trusted issuer policies across partner institutions and adopt conformance checks.

Outcome

Higher education can normalize accountable agent identity at scale and serve as a credible foundation for broader enterprise and public-sector adoption.