Successful administration of remote programs and services requires that information technology (IT) professionals and university administrators address two critical identity management factors: (1) linking the institutional electronic record representing an individual with the "real" person; and (2) establishing a mechanism/protocol (user name and password, also known as a credential) via which the physical person can "link" to his electronic record. Institutions rely on a set of Identity Management (IdM) practices to accomplish this process. For traditional students--i.e., those who arrive for orientation and anticipate spending their academic careers on campus--there are standard procedures for vetting identities and issuing ID cards and credentials. But for students at a distance, no analogous common methods or best practices exist--certainly none deemed acceptable by key privacy and regulatory experts. Universities are accelerating their reliance on technology to deliver online educational services, including individual courses and entire programs. Nationally, there is increased interest in understanding these trends as well as increased scrutiny of program integrity. IdM thus must provide appropriate support while guaranteeing both security and privacy. What IdM practices, then, have institutions adopted and implemented? To answer that question, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and InCommon conducted a "Survey on Establishing Remote Student Identity" in fall 2010. This article presents the results of the survey which focused on business process and practice, not on technology, and concentrated on remote identity practices surrounding the delivery of distance and remote instruction that could result in the award of a terminal degree. The survey's intent was to identify practices that highlight the difficulty of proving the identity of an individual and linking that person to an institutional electronic record in the absence of face-to-face contact. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables and 5 footnotes.)