What is the UK Access Management Federation

The UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research is a group of institutions and organisations that share a set of agreed policies and rules for exchanging information about users and resources. The Federation utilises open standards to provide secure access to protected online resources.

Who should join the UK Access Management Federation?

Eligible members of the Federation include:

• Schools
• Universities and Colleges
• Research organisations
• Organisations providing services to education and research

Are there different ways to participate in the UK Access Management Federation?

Organisations may participate in the Federation as an Identity Provider (IdP), as a Service Provider (SP) or both IdP and SP.

• IdPs Authenticate a Users identity to verify the user is who they say they are.
• SPs Authorise rights to what the user is allowed to access.

What are the options for joining the UK Access Management Federation for UK Education Institutions

UK Institutions wishing to join the Federation have three options.

• In-house - Develop, manage and support their own IdP using software based on the SAML standard.
• Hybrid - Run an in-house IdP that has been provided and supported by a commercial 3^rd Party.
• Outsource - Outsource the entire IdP service to an external organisation such as Eduserv who provide supported membership of the Federation through the OpenAthens service.
  OpenAthens enables institutions to join the Federation while continuing to enjoy the reliability, user-friendliness and support associated with the current Athens service.
  Find out more about joining the Federation with OpenAthens