Bremen, March 12, 2025 – Univention has released UCS@school 5.2, a new version of its education platform. With this release, educational institutions can now benefit from the new features introduced with Univention Corporate Server 5.2, which was released in February. Key highlights include:
- Keycloak as the new, powerful identity provider, enabling modern Single Sign-on (SSO) and providing greater flexibility for authentication methods.
- An updated system base on Debian 12 “Bookworm”, improving platform stability while ensuring readiness for future requirements through the latest security updates.
- Migration to Python 3.11, delivering improved performance and long-term maintainability.
UCS@school provides school authorities with a powerful, centralized Identity & Access Management solution that can be managed centrally within the school authority’s data center. It enables the integration of a wide range of IT services for digital teaching, learning, and school administration. This helps support digital education, simplifies administrative processes, and reduces the administrative workload for teachers. The newly released version of the education platform is fully compatible with Univention Corporate Server 5.2.
OpenID Connect for Secure Authentication and Selective Synchronization for the Active Directory Connector
By extending the UCS web interface with OpenID Connect (OIDC), both the user portal and the Univention Management Console (UMC) for administrators now support modern authentication capabilities, including Backchannel Logout for Single Logout (SLO) without user interaction.
Selective synchronization in the Active Directory Connector has also been enhanced. Improvements to synchronization controls simplify the targeted management and exchange of data between UCS and Active Directory.
Improvements for Secure Usernames and Exam Mode
In addition to its new features, UCS@school 5.2 includes numerous bug fixes and usability improvements.
One enhancement ensures the use of valid usernames. By default, the system now verifies that usernames comply with Windows naming conventions, helping prevent compatibility issues with Microsoft clients. Invalid usernames are now reported as critical issues by the system diagnostic tool.
The Exam Mode has also been updated. The previous Exam Shell Hooks have been replaced by Python hooks, which can now be executed on the Primary Directory Node.
A complete list of changes, bug fixes, and improvements is available in the release changelogs.
UCS@school 5.2 is available immediately for new installations and upgrades. At the same time, UCS@school 5.0 enters the maintenance phase, meaning that all new features will be developed exclusively for UCS@school 5.2 going forward.
„With UCS@school 5.2, we are helping school authorities take the management of digital identities and access rights for teachers and students to the next level. By integrating Keycloak as the new identity provider, users can access IT services from different vendors more easily than ever before using their familiar credentials—without compromising the security of the school IT environment. At the same time, school authorities retain complete transparency and control over all IT processes and the storage of sensitive user data.“
In Development: Compatibility with Additional Apps
Univention continues to improve the user experience and security of UCS@school. Current development efforts focus on making additional applications compatible with UCS@school 5.2, including the Kelvin API, Veyon Proxy App, Univention ID Connector, ID Broker, and the Apple School Manager Connector.
About Univention
Headquartered in Bremen, Germany, Univention is a provider of open source solutions for the efficient management of digital identities and the integration of IT applications. Openness, scalability, and ease of use are core characteristics of Univention’s products and support the realization of digital sovereignty by giving organizations control over their data and identities while enabling them to shape their IT infrastructure independently.
Nubus combines centralized Identity & Access Management, a web portal for seamless access to applications, and standardized interfaces and integration packages for connecting IT services.
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is an open integration platform that includes Nubus and its own App Center, enabling the centralized management of heterogeneous IT environments. UCS can be deployed both as a software appliance in on-premises data centers and in the cloud.
Designed specifically for the education sector, UCS@school provides school authorities with an optimized platform for delivering services from a wide range of vendors—including learning management systems, email, cloud services, and office applications—through centralized school portals. User accounts can be imported, including automatically from state directory services, and managed centrally.
Univention’s solutions are used by numerous German federal states, municipalities, districts, public administrations, and enterprises throughout the DACH region.
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UCS@school 5.2
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