City University London facilitates e-learning with high speed network

Published 19th June 2008

New network connects 15,000 students and 2,500 staff across 11 sites
High-speed connectivity supports 21st Century learning

ntl:Telewest Business, the supplier of communications services to the public and private sectors, has teamed up with City University London to connect 15,000 students and 2,500 staff with a high speed network that facilitates e-learning and remote access to central resources.

Based in the heart of London, City University is one of the UK’s leading universities and is dedicated to providing high-quality education that meets the needs of its students and their employers. Made up of seven schools in and around the City of London, including the School of Arts, the City Law School, and City Community and Health Sciences, City University wanted to ensure that students had quick and reliable access to academic resources regardless of their location.

In order to provide the best teaching, learning and research environments, the university embarked on a five year strategy, entitled ‘City 2012 and beyond’, and one of its five programmes involves the development of Information Services. A key project within this is the complete replacement of the data network to provide sufficient bandwidth to support e-learning technologies such as WebCT (Course Tools), podcasts of lectures and a virtual learning environment, which will improve the learning experience for both students and staff.

Following a full tender process, City University chose ntl:Telewest Business to replace its Wide Area Network (WAN), with a flexible, single vendor solution. The company deployed a high-speed Metro Ethernet VPN network that connects City University’s main building and large central campus at Northampton Square in Clerkenwell to 10 remote sites, including Cass Business School (Bunhill Row), City Community and Health Sciences and The City Law School.


The new high bandwidth network ensures that applications at the central campus can be accessed by staff and students from remote sites. For example, CitySpace, the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) used at the university is available to students on and off campus, providing them with access to online course materials, resources, interactive activities, and assessment and communication tools. Lectures, live events and additional learning content (video and audio) can also be streamed over the network.

Carl Stokes, Director of IT Operations and Infrastructure at City University, said: “City University London is at the forefront of e-learning and over the last calendar year we’ve seen a 35 per cent increase in its use. In order to support this service and deploy further innovative technologies to enhance the way our students learn, we required sufficient resilient bandwidth over which to run applications. ntl:Telewest Business has a good track record of delivery in the public sector and the company provided us with the best technical and commercial solution at the best price.”

“The university now has a high-speed, flexible and reliable network, ensuring that applications perform as well as if you were accessing them from the central campus. Whether students are working from their halls of residence or a remote site, they have the same e-learning experience.”

John Cunningham, Director of Business Markets, ntl:Telewest Business, said: “City University is a shining example of how academic institutions can use new technologies to complement traditional teaching methods and enhance the way in which students learn. ntl:Telewest Business aims to help further and higher education institutions reap the benefits of resilient and high performance networks, facilitating web-based learning, quick and easy access to student and examination records and collaborative working on joint research projects.“

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About ntl:Telewest Business

ntl:Telewest Business has the most technically advanced of the UK’s two national networks. Its vast nation-wide Next Generation Network provides businesses, public sector organisations and service providers across the UK with a complete portfolio of advanced data, internet and voice services. The £13billion network is flexible, scaleable and is already built out to more than 38,000 street cabinets across the UK..

As part of a commitment to deliver superior customer service, ntl:Telewest Business sales and support teams are located in close proximity to its customers in over 40 centres across the UK.

ntl:Telewest Business is trusted to provide critical communications to high profile customers including: Birmingham City Council, Yorkshire Water and EasyJet.

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