Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 November 2022
453. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if his Department will consider developing, with the ETBs and other statutory education bodies, networks of remote study hubs in regional towns in which there is no third level institution footprint; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56484/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraHEAnet, on behalf of the Department, is currently working with ETBs on a pilot project to test and roll out two services to the ETB sector, Edugate Federated Identity and eduroam. These services will allow third-level students to access secure eduroam Wi-Fi across the country.
Edugate is HEAnet’s federated single sign-on (SSO) service which deals with over 40 million authentications every year across the HEAnet network. For users, it means they only need one set of credentials to log in and access services such as email, virtual learning environments, journal and library services, web application logins and many others.
eduroam is a Wi-Fi service which enables students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to securely access the internet at their college/university and whilst visiting other participating institutions. In addition to 95 higher education sites, eduroam is currently available in over 500 off-campus locations across Ireland, such as libraries, transport, working hubs, community centres, town centres, and many more.
eduroam brings important benefits for students, institutions and service providers. High performance, secure Wi-Fi access transforms the learning experience. This removes the need to find free (and possibly insecure) Wi-Fi hotspots – the users’ existing credentials are used to access Wi-Fi wherever they need to connect.
For institutions, there is no longer a need to provide insecure shared usernames and passwords or to respond to requests for access. For service providers, it attracts the educational community to their venue and enables participants to access wireless connectivity without assistance. More information about eduroam and list of all eduroam Wi-Fi hotspot locations can be found on www.eduroam.ie
ConnectedHubs.ie is operated by The National Hub Network, a Government of Ireland initiative that provides a vehicle for individual work hubs to come together under a shared identity to maximise the economic opportunity of remote working.
