The Auraria Higher Education Center in Denver is implementing a new smart card system to boost physical and digital student security, according to an Emergency Management report.

The contactless cards will initially be used for physical access control systems in academic and residential buildings and later to enhance parking, meal payment, library checkout and other management activities. The program will be deployed at the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver and the University of Colorado-Denver, all of which are housed under the AHEC, the news source said.

"It's being used for physical security," contactless smart card expert Steve Benitez said, according to Emergency Management. "From a security standpoint, you can protect that information that's being written to the card over and beyond what just an encrypted card could do."

A separate report by MarketsandMarkets revealed that the global smart card market is forecast to expand at a compound annual growth rate of more than 9 percent through 2015, with shipments eventually exceeding 8.8 billion units. This growth is largely attributed to the ongoing adoption of innovative access control systems at schools around the world.