Student card

A student card is a document confirming student status (it also entitles to discounts on public transport). It includes basic personal details and a photograph. Remember that the student card is usually valid for one semester. After that period, it loses the ability to confirm that you are a student – unless it is extended.

Expiry date

To make sure that the student card is valid, you should look at its reverse and check the date on the hologram. Your student card will obtain new holograms with subsequent renewals, and the most recent one is crucial.

Smart card

Student cards are electronic – which means that apart from information printed on the card’s surface, they also contain information imprinted electronically, which can be read out with the help of a particular card reader. Apart from basic personal details, it also consists of the expiry date (it should be the same as on the hologram). If you have a computer with a card reader, you can check the data (especially the expiry date) inscribed electronically on your card. All you need is to download free software from https://www.usosweb.uj.edu.pl/els or https://www.usosweb.uj.edu.pl/eld, open it, and insert your student card into the reader. The data exchange between the card and the reader happens via a metal chip placed below the national emblem on the card’s front side. Cards are to be placed in most readers with the chip facing upwards (in a way that the photograph is visible).

Proximity card

The student card is also a proximity card which means that special devices can retrieve data from the card even without direct contact but at a close distance. Do not worry that someone will be able to track you, as the standard of cards issued by our university allows for the data exchange only at a very close distance of a few centimetres.

Secretary’s office

All student card issues must be reported to the secretary’s office responsible for your studies. Issuing new cards and extending their expiry dates also lies within the responsibility of the secretary’s office. It should not take long if you meet the requirements of continuing your studies next semester. Saving the updated data electronically and applying a new hologram takes about one minute.

Additional features

Apart from being a confirmation of student status, the student card has other features. When you join the Jagiellonian Library, it will serve as a library card (a barcode printed at the reverse of the card is a number allocated to you for that reason). It may also serve as the Kraków City Card for transportation. If you would like to use it this way, and you have agreed to transfer your data to the MPK upon your enrollment, visit any vending machine buy a season ticket. If you have not agreed to transfer your data to the MPK, you must visit any season ticket sales point and adjust your student card appropriately. You will be able to buy season tickets in any vending machine around the city from now on.

Using your card

The card may be necessary to access some data or rooms in the future. Therefore, treat it as an important and valuable document, store it the way you keep other cards (e.g., bank cards), try not to bend and scratch it. If you damage or lose your card, you may apply for its duplicate at the secretary’s office and pay for it. The copy will not be identical to the original. If you were using your card as the Kraków City Card, you have to visit a season ticket sales point to upload the previously bought tickets to the new card.

Warranty exchange

If the electronic circuit of the student card fails to work correctly despite being correctly handled, you may exchange the card for a new one free of charge. Visit the secretary’s office to learn more about this procedure. Mechanically damaged student cards (broken, bent, cracked) will not be exchanged.

Launching the functionality of a season ticket on the electronic student card

All students of the Jagiellonian University, who have agreed to transfer their data to the MPK upon their enrollment, may use the functionality of the Kraków City Card, allowing them to buy a season ticket.

Students who have not agreed to transfer their data to the MPK upon their enrollment should:

Visit any MPK season ticket sales point:

ul. Św. Wawrzyńca 13
ul. Podwale 3/5
MPK bus loop by the Main Railway Station East
Bus loop Krowodrza Górka
os. Centrum D bl.7 (Nowa Huta)
ul. Powstanców Wielkopolskich 6

give consent to the processing of personal data by the MPK to the extent necessary to use this service and buy a season ticket.

Only the sales point at the ul. Podwale 3/5 has a reader allowing to import personal data. Employees at other locations do it manually.

You may buy further season tickets in any of the 60 vending machines around the city available 24/7.
The expiry date of the season ticket saved on the student card may be checked:

in the MPK’s vending machines on the bus or tram stops
in the vending machines in some of trams and busses
in ticket validators with KKM (Kraków City Card) stickers

Press your student card against a vending machine or a ticket validator to check the expiry date. In the case of vending machines at the bus or tram stops, you must insert your card into the reader.