In recent years, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MBJS) in Brandenburg has continuously modernized the digital school landscape. The focus is on specialized administrative procedures for school management, made available to schools in Brandenburg through a dedicated school portal. The key component for centrally managing identities in these applications is the identity management system (IdM) implemented with UCS@school. Each user receives their own digital identity from the system, which is used across different applications. In total, more than 20,000 teachers at nearly 1,000 schools are currently centrally managed in Brandenburg’s school network.
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In 2018, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MBJS) in Brandenburg decided to fundamentally renew digital school administration. In cooperation with Univention, the ministry introduced UCS@school as a central identity management system (IdM). This allows all user accounts and access rights for the various digital services to be managed securely and efficiently. Univention’s tailored role and rights concept also played a crucial role in the solution, as did the ability to assign email addresses to specific user groups and access levels that integrate seamlessly into the new system and extend existing access options.
This article offers a behind-the-scenes look at Brandenburg’s digitalization project. You will learn how the state has designed and implemented a highly efficient digital school infrastructure using UCS@school as its IdM system. We’ll also explore how the various specialized procedures – some developed by the state itself – could be seamlessly integrated into this central concept and what advantages this offers today’s school administration. Let’s start with an introduction to these procedures.
Digital Administrative Procedures: A Look Behind the Scenes
In recent years, the state of Brandenburg has made significant progress in digitalizing the education sector. This journey began with the introduction of three key data sources forming the foundation for more efficient school administration: weBBschule, APSIS, and ZENSOS. Let’s take a closer look at these systems and how they work together to optimize day-to-day educational operations.
- weBBschule: Student data
- APSIS: Teacher data at the school authority
- ZENSOS: School data managed by the ministry
weBBschule: Optimized Processes for Daily School Operations
Since August 1, 2013, the school administration software weBBschule has been available to all general education schools in Brandenburg. Vocational schools were integrated into the system in 2017. Its digital processes are tailored to the specific type of school. Each school manages the access of all stakeholders in the educational process independently. In this way, weBBschule supports teachers in numerous daily administrative tasks:
- Capturing student master data
- Assigning students and teachers to classes
- Recording grades and printing report cards
- Tracking absences
- Managing appointments
- Planning exams
- Managing school transitions
The performance and practical value of weBBschule has since become well-known beyond the state’s borders: the system is now also used in other German federal states.
APSIS: Efficient Personnel and Position Management
While weBBschule simplifies daily school operations for teachers, APSIS plays a central role in managing teaching staff. APSIS is the central system for automated personnel and position management within the four regional school authorities of Brandenburg. The system is used decentrally in all four authorities and enables full budgeting and resource management for teachers and educational assistants at public schools. APSIS also manages prospective applicants and, in combination with ZENSOS, supports future staffing and deployment planning.
ZENSOS: Central School Administration in Brandenburg
ZENSOS, the central system for online management of school information, is a key component of school administration in Brandenburg. This portal, developed by the state, captures and processes school information automatically and presents it at all levels – from individual schools to supervisory authorities to the ministry.
ZENSOS not only supports legal obligations such as collecting school data but also eases the workload for school inspectors. The system gathers basic data such as school master data, performance data such as exam results and standardized assessments, and structural data like student population trends in specific areas.
The Vision: Integrating a School Email System into Brandenburg’s Specialized Procedures
To connect the various systems, those responsible opted to use UCS@school as the central identity management system (IdM). Univention was tasked with developing a web-based interface for the specialized procedures weBBschule, APSIS, the school portal, and ZENSOS to ensure seamless integration.
In 2019, MBJS also began rolling out a modern email infrastructure for teachers in Brandenburg, based on the OX App Suite. To ensure this solution works with the UCS@school IdM system, Univention developed the OX Connector, which synchronizes user data between the OX App Suite and UCS@school.
The OX App Suite relies on a backend email infrastructure, referred to as the “mail stack.” This infrastructure is provided by the UCS Mailserver app, which uses Postfix for sending emails (SMTP) and Dovecot for storing them (IMAP and POP3).
As early as 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the school email solution was rolled out to all teachers in Brandenburg. School administrations and schools can now automatically generate access to these email services through the specialized procedures. As of January 2025, the system’s capabilities are particularly evident: mail access is automatically created via weBBschule using the OX Connector. The underlying UCS mail stack with Postfix and Dovecot currently provides around 30,000 mailboxes – the total mail volume now exceeds 10 terabytes.
Kelvin REST API: Managing Brandenburg’s Schools and User Data
To avoid directly coupling the specialized procedures with the Kelvin REST API, the central communication interface weBBservice has been in use in Brandenburg’s school network since 2022. The advantage is that changes to the API specification need to be made in only one central location – all connected applications remain unaffected.
This interface uses Univention’s Kelvin REST API to communicate directly with the UCS@school directory service. Without this directory service, managing the various digital services would simply not be possible. Through the Kelvin REST API, schools, roles, classes, and user accounts can not only be queried but also modified or deleted.
The particular advantage of the UCS@school Kelvin REST API is that the information it provides is available not only internally but also for other IT services. This means that Brandenburg’s digital infrastructure depends on the reliable functioning of the UCS@school directory service. Its stable performance allows schools in Brandenburg to use many of their digital applications efficiently.
School Portal: Access to Brandenburg’s Education System
The Brandenburg School Portal is an online platform developed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MBJS), providing a central entry point into the state’s digital education ecosystem. It is aimed at students, teachers, school administrators, school authorities, and other stakeholders in the education sector who wish to access digital information and services.
The school portal is a key part of the digital transformation of Brandenburg’s education system. Its offerings include:
- Direct access to public and internal internet content and specialized IT applications
- Digital application processes for parents and teachers
- Information and descriptions of the MBJS administrative procedures
- Help documents to support daily system use
- Training opportunities, legal information, and social support for teachers
- Information about planned student competitions, including target groups, deadlines, and application details
- Direct access to support services for questions or problems
For identity and access management, the school portal uses the open-source solution Keycloak, which is connected to the UCS@school directory service. As an OpenID Connect provider, Keycloak enables single sign-on for third-party applications. Users log in once to the school portal to access all applications and data available to them. Currently, however, this feature has not yet been activated.
A Connected System for the Education of Tomorrow
The digitalization of Brandenburg’s education sector demonstrates how different systems and solutions can be integrated to enable efficient and user-friendly school administration. From weBBschule to APSIS, ZENSOS, and the school portal – each element contributes to simplifying everyday school operations and improving the quality of education. Univention and UCS@school play a central role by enabling the integration and management of these systems, thus paving the way for the education of tomorrow.
