Te Pūkenga teams up with REANNZ to deliver high performance Wi-Fi to all learners

By the end of 2023, all ākonga (learners) and kaimahi (staff) of Te Pūkenga New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology will have access to free, secure, high-performance Wi-Fi across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te Pūkenga and Crown entity REANNZ are working together to provide roaming Wi-Fi access with the eduroam network which already includes more than 180 enabled sites across Aotearoa New Zealand (including wānanga, universities, libraries, cafés and conference centres) and many more internationally.  

Te Pūkenga has brought together 25 polytechnics and industry training providers into a national network, delivering vocational education to 271,000 ākonga while employing 9,000 kaimahi working from more than 90 sites across Aotearoa New Zealand. eduroam will be key to unlocking their connectivity.

“This is a huge win for both ākonga and kaimahi as it will allow a seamless, single sign-on access at their campuses as well as the additional enabled sites if they are travelling around the country,” says Te Pūkenga Chief Digital Officer Teresa Pollard.

“Joining eduroam is a major step towards realising our goal of putting ākonga at the centre of what we do, whether they’re learning with us on-campus, online or in the workplace. We anticipate most of Te Pūkenga network will be on eduroam by the end of November. It will greatly enhance and simplify the digital experience we offer those learning and working with us,” says Teresa Pollard.

REANNZ Chief Executive Amber McEwen says the rollout at Te Pūkenga is part of a broader strategy to ensure greater connection across the research and education sectors. REANNZ is a Crown-owned organisation that supports the research and education sectors through a high-performance digital network, including services such as eduroam.

“Our goal at REANNZ is to enable students and educators to study, research and collaborate wherever they are. That might happen at a school, a tertiary education facility, or a local library or marae. eduroam is a huge part of making that happen because it provides simple, easy and secure connectivity across hotspots, nationally and globally,” says Amber McEwen. 

“We have already implemented it across a host of member institutions – from Crown agencies and tertiary education facilities – and we’re also ramping up our footprint in libraries and other community hubs. This year, we successfully piloted eduroam in 15 libraries in Southland and Otago – and we’re also working with the Ministry of Education on an initiative to roll it out to secondary schools over the next 12 months.”