Higher education remains one of the most popular choices for today’s school leavers, with the UK having over 2 million students throughout its 160+ academic institutions. With data-intensive practices such as remote and digital learning now seemingly a permanent feature of further education in the UK, the pressure is now on for institutions and providers to ensure that their connectivity capabilities are able to deliver on the demands of staff and students.
Universities are providing excellent opportunities to their students through technology, but in order to optimise the student experience, institutions must prioritise the efficiency and accessibility of online tools. Much focus at this year’s Student Accommodation Conference was placed on digital experience and the future of purpose built student accommodation (PBSA). With the continued growth of the ‘blended’ learning approach, it is now essential that the connectivity available to students is able to facilitate and develop this modern way of learning.
The Current Connectivity Challenge
In response to the growing network demands of students and academic staff , a market-leader in ultrafast broadband connectivity, is well positioned to provide higher education institutions with a range of appropriate solutions to this growing issue. Glide is well established in its provision of connectivity infrastructure to education hubs throughout the UK, with over 1,100 student residencies being serviced by Glide’s 20 “fibre city” projects.
A number of universities suffer from similar challenges within their existing network infrastructure across the nation. Many are unable to keep up with the rising demands of today’s increasingly digitised, remote student cohorts. Contemporary practices such as flexible learning patterns, virtual lectures and other virtual tools are proving to be more data-intensive, and are taking their toll on current networks.
Rather than simply improving existing infrastructure, connectivity provisions in the wider area around the institutions must become more resilient, robust and prepared for future changes to the livelihoods of users.
Delivering the Fibre City Experience
In response to these challenges, Glide Group was tasked with developing multiple fibre cities, which were essentially metropolitan areas with pervasive fibre at their core. Urban areas with high student populations were identified as targets that required a timely, reliable solution to their network issues, allowing these locations to continue their growth as both educational and commercial hubs.
Each of Glide’s fibre city installations are situated on Glide’s very own robust gamma ring, ensuring their integration into Glide's 400Gbit/s national network. Residents, students and businesses within these cities are now able to access Glide’s ultra-fast Wi-Fi and gigabit fibre broadband network, guaranteeing a robust connection that facilitates modern, data-intensive livelihoods.
This reliable, ultra-fast broadband aligns with the demands of the modern university student, and with these fibre cities, hybrid learning is now made a more accessible and realistic option to many. With a fibre city model, many students can now work from their halls of residence or student accommodation, and still experience the same ultra-fast connectivity that they would on campus.
The reliance on connectivity to fulfil the university experience is here to stay and needs to be adopted across entire cities as smart infrastructure in order to empower students irrespective of their location.
Here at Glide with our Student Accommodation services, you come first. Contact us to find out how we can help your company today.