In most cases the access to Stud.IP is handled slightly different at each site, particularly at universities. Fundamentally, one differentiates between "closed" and “open” systems.

"Closed" systems are part of a central directory service, which is centrally administered and already contains a list of all the students and lecturers. One is normally given one's access data during the enrolment process or at the local computer centre. In most cases there is an appropriate notice on the system start page providing information on how one can obtain a username and password.

In “open” systems every user can register themself and set up an account with username and password. This is NOT possible or necessary in closed systems.