A university challenge for the channel
The extra strain that will be placed on the IT networks of universities following the lifting of the student cap signals an opportunity for the channel, argues Vanix's Will Braybrook
Chancellor George Osborne unexpectedly announced in his Autumn Statement in December 2013 that the cap on undergraduate student numbers will be abolished for the year commencing 2015/16. His plans were introduced to bring the UK in line with other western countries such as the US, which has a higher proportion of people going to university, and as a result, we saw an increase in student recruitment by 30,000 for the year 2014/15. As we approach the end of student cap, the government predicts that the number of students entering higher education will increase by 60,000 year on year.
While this change will have a hugely positive impact on the British economy as more skilled people enter the workforce, and higher education becomes accessible to everyone, it is also likely to trigger fierce competition between universities. To prepare, universities will need to focus on how they can best maintain good reputations in order to attract the best talent.
In addition, as students choose new approaches that utilise devices, the delivery of course material will need to change to adapt and keep pace with students' behaviour. Course materials are being delivered digitally, assignments are being set away from the classroom, and even libraries are providing access to research information via their websites. Furthermore, more universities are offering Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), whereby the course is undertaken entirely online.
All of these new initiatives will place the network under more pressure than ever before and force universities to consider how they will cope with the extra traffic. With tuition fees at the highest they've ever been (up to £9,000 per year in the UK), and the third highest in the developed world as of 2011, students are unsurprisingly demanding better value for money and network disruption will no longer be acceptable.
Higher education institutions will no doubt be taking advantage of their ability to recruit an unlimited number of undergraduates and will need to consider solutions that prepare their networks for a number of different factors. A report released in 2013 said that the education technology market would increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 per cent over the following five years, increasing from a valuation of $31.3bn at the beginning of 2013, to a total of almost $60bn by 2018.
Channel partners will need to show an understanding of the challenges faced by the higher education industry in light of these recent changes, and demonstrate how high quality networking solutions can remove obstacles to opportunity through existing experience with customers. Given the complex and long-term nature of the sector's needs, it will be important for partners to work with vendors who offer the full range of solutions which will give them the best value for money as well as the training and support required.
How technology can set universities up for more students
To cope with the increased numbers of students, one solution that higher education organisations can deploy in order to expand anytime, anywhere connectivity across and in and around the campus is WLAN technology. WLAN solutions that offer "smart enterprise network" features that can help improve the availability, reliability and coverage, as well as manage ability and security of wired and wireless campus LANs. A high-performance, high-availability wireless architecture can offer an ideal edge solution for delivering virtualised and/or cloud-based services, including video-on-demand, e-learning apps and student portals.
In addition, a solution which gives a birds-eye-view of the network, captures network data and aggregates, analyses, correlates, and reports on it, will turn the network into a strategic asset that can provide valuable insight for IT. However, as wireless is a shared-access technology, security planning must be considered. Network access control (NAC) and role-based provisioning solutions give IT the power to provide staff and students the appropriate access to the network depending on their role; this enables them to remain productive but only have access to what they need relevant to their position, thus managing network load efficiently.
Channel partners must be sensitive to the changing needs of higher education institutions as these changes come into effect over the next couple of months, and use their knowledge and experience in networking technology to offer a suitable solution.
Universities can look to the appeal of best of breed IT equipment to fend off competition, but with an unprecedented number of students using their devices to study on campus and access course materials, ensuring super-fast Wi-Fi and a fast, scalable and agile network should become top priorities. Resellers should look to partner with technology vendors that offer best-in-breed solutions with sector-relevant experience, as well as all the tools and training that the partners need to be successful.
Will Braybrook is higher education director at Vanix