Bridging the Digital Divide

Digital equity was a focus for REANNZ in 2023 as we worked with the Ministry of Education to enable students to study, research and collaborate across multiple locations when home is not an option.

This proposition gives students across the motu access to eduroam, a federated wifi solution that enables students to roam across multiple locations seamlessly, reducing a barrier to connectivity.

After a successful trial at Ara Institute in Canterbury, Te Pūkenga is rolling out eduroam across all their campuses to support their student mobility strategy by ensuring a consistent digital experience for ākonga and staff nationwide.

REANNZ's partnership with the Ministry of Education also saw a successful eduroam proof-of-concept undertaken in Logan Park High School in Dunedin. The success of this means that we will now make eduroam available to all secondary school children across Aotearoa in 2024.

REANNZ also partnered with libraries connectivity group APNK to pilot eduroam at 15 public libraries, and is poised to begin an eduroam pilot at a marae in Whakatane, exploring how improved connectivity in the community might be expanded to include more locations where Māori researchers and educators spend time and feel connected to others.

The ultimate goal for this programme is for all cities and towns in Aotearoa to have venues such as marae, museums and transport hubs enabled with eduroam.