Your identity provider
SAML and Shibboleth
Universities with their own identity provider can connect it to Oxonia using SAML or Shibboleth. People then sign in the way they always do.
What SAML and Shibboleth are
SAML is an open standard that lets one system confirm who a person is to another system. Shibboleth is widely used in higher education and is built on SAML. Many universities use one of them to give staff and students one sign-in for many services.
How Oxonia uses them
The Oxonia Academy ID can trust the university's identity provider. When a person chooses their university on the sign-in page, they go to the university's own sign-in screen. Once signed in, they come back to Oxonia.
Oxonia never sees their university password.
Why universities choose it
- The university keeps one source of truth for who is a member.
- Joiners and leavers are handled in one place.
- The university's own sign-in rules, such as a second step, apply to Oxonia. See Access controls and 2FA.
- It works whether the university runs Microsoft, Google, both or neither.
Roles after sign-in
The identity provider says who the person is. Oxonia roles say what they can do: leader, admin, lecturer, student or researcher. Admins set roles in the university admin console.
Setting it up
Your identity team and ours exchange the details each side needs, and an admin switches the connection on in the console. We test it with a small group first, before it opens to everyone.
Other options
If your university uses Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for sign-in, you can connect those directly instead.
Common questions
Does Oxonia store university passwords? No. People sign in on the university's own screen. Oxonia receives confirmation of who they are.
Can we pass roles from our identity provider? How roles are matched to information from your identity provider is agreed during set-up. Admins can always adjust roles in the console.
Does Shibboleth work for every product? Yes. All Oxonia products share the Oxonia Academy ID, so one connection covers them all.
Shibboleth is common in universities that share services with other institutions. If your university belongs to such a group, tell us during the demo, so we can plan the connection in the way your identity team prefers.
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