Welcome to the UK federation Information Centre


Here is a glossary of terms.

For further information on the UK federation, please click on the following links. If you have JavaScript enabled, clicking on a "[+]" symbol will expand that section. Otherwise, click on the section title to be taken to a page with the same content.

[+] Events

[+] Preparation and joining process

[+] Core federation documentation

UK federation Service Documents

Here is a list of documents used as the basis of federation services.

  1. Rules of membership for the federation (updated January 2022) - updated! - sets out the framework of trust that binds together members of the federation.
  2. Recommendations for use of personal data (updated May 2018). The federation is designed to protect the privacy of the user while giving service providers and member organisations sufficient assurance that requirements such as licenses and acceptable use policies can be enforced. The Shibboleth architecture, chosen for the federation, is designed to protect user privacy. (Updated 2018-05 to include text on GDPR)
  3. Technical recommendations for participants, v1.6, July 2021 , is primarily aimed at technical staff involved in designing services or deploying software for use in the UK federation.

    There are also two documents of relevance to the schools sector, which will be subsumed within a later version:

  4. The Federation technical specifications, v1.6, July 2021 specifies the federation’s technical architecture in more detail, including the rationale behind some of the technical choices made.
  5. Federation operator procedures - (updated July 2019) ( 118KB), sets out details on enrolment, certificate authority qualification and support services being provided by the federation operator.
  6. The UK federation's Metadata Registration Practice Statement describes our requirements for metadata that we register.
  7. This eligibility policy defines the types of membership available to organisations wishing to join the UK Access Management Federation.

Further documents

Last updated 2008 so most likely of historical interest only

It is planned to release further documents to help sites implement their federation systems. These will be published here in due course. A draft of the first of these, on the deployment of identity providers ( 337KB), is included here.

Presentations

Last updated 2007 so most likely of historical interest only

Here is a page containing links to presentations of interest to federation members or prospective members.

[+] Quick links to technical information pages

[+] Presentations

Other presentations are available on the JISC Slideshow page

[+] Case studies

Anecdotal Case Studies from the Community

These case studies, prepared by member organisations of the UK federation, are provided for information purposes only and reflect the particular arrangements and experience of those concerned.

Access Management - Higher Education

Access Management - Further Education

Access Management - Schools Sector

Access Management - Service Providers

Windows Quick Install

Guides produced by participants in the Windows Quick Install project

[+] Other

You can get a list of all the pages by clicking here. If you want to find out what has changed recently, visit RecentChanges. Alternatively, there are RSS feeds you can use with a news aggregator to see federation news, when new pages are created or information on new Service Providers.