University of Jos, Institutional information: July 8, 2002

Status of Internet connectivity Linked and Real time

ICT strategic planning (Is there a strategic plan? Yes! Lines of authority. ICT Board, Three ICT (Computer center, MIS and NUNet) Committees, ICT Units and then Faculties, Library and Administrative Units. Implementation. First cycle of strategic plan will end in 2003)

Type of Internet link (VSAT, wireless, leased line, dial-up, etc.) and name of provider. VSAT. New Skies, London.

Amount of bandwidth 64/128 Kbps and costs U$4332 per month; whether bandwidth is sufficient for needs; Bandwidth is insufficient, but there are problems of underutilization for now. Examples: Yet to have 24/7 service. Inadequate number of telephone lines to effectively and efficiently operate dial up services. Services still restricted to academic areas not open 24/7. On the other hand, bandwidth is insufficient to host university web site currently hosted at University of Iowa. We are in the process of doing major expansion of the network and other infrastructure, which will dictate immediate increase in bandwidth needs and utilization. projected bandwidth needs in one year (256/512 Kbps) and in five years. (1/2 Mbps)

Whether your institution has a campus backbone, including details on WANs, Campus WAN with temporary HDSL link between two campuses, Each Campus has a fiber network. LANs, 15 in Faculties, Library and other Units linked by fiber optic cables and Cisco switches and network points 334 apart from temporary connections.

ICT software packages being used (for teaching and learning, the libraries, administration, etc.) Microsoft office, CADs, Internet packages, Databases, Scientific workplace, Mathematica, Matcad, GIS, SPSS, ITS for Windows and Braille Software.

How is ICT being used to access research information? Through CDs, the Internet and the University Intranet. The University Intranet has a digital library.

How are major ICT hardware and software purchasing decisions made? VSAT, through Tenders Board of Council. Others, essentially through ICT Units and Departments. Recommendations are made by heads of units with endorsement of specification by relevant ICT unit and approval by Vice chancellor’s administrative committee. Currently we are encouraging organic growth so that increasingly the departments and units are taking independent decisions. How is maintenance handled? One of the three ICT units, the Computer Center, has a maintenance workshop that handles a significant quantum of hardware maintenance. Use of other hardware maintenance operators exist side by side with this arrangement. Some units have maintenance agreements for software maintenance and there is a maintenance agreement for the network and VSAT.

Human-resource needs—do you have sufficient staff to meet your requirements? NO! A small number of ICT staffs are overstretched. However there is a feeling we should not take a large number of ICT staff on board, as the need for them will decrease with increased empowerment of staff and students. The general plan is to provide skills for staff of all categories. There is an internship program in place that takes a significant quantum of work from the shoulders of existing staff. Plans exist for its expansion. What are your projections?

2002 (UCC-12, NUNet-7, MIS-4, LIS 3; Total [26]).

2007(UCC-20, NUNet-15, MIS-8, LIS-10; Total [53]).

Extent to which students and staff have access to computers, Limited e-mail, Unlimited. Over 3000 users. and the Internet Limited; an average of 160 staff and students use the cyber café daily, six days a week. Over 70 users access the Internet daily from other parts of the network. What are the costs for access, if any? NU$1.75 an hour at cyber café. U$1/2 an hour from other parts of the network, under experimentation. Internet Access is not free for anybody. Does this present a problem for students or staff? More students will use facilities if they were cheaper. If all staff and students will pay a small fee, generation of funds for payment of bandwidth costs, would administratively be quite easy. Difficulty is that existing facilities provide limited access, conditions under which it seems unfair to introduce compulsory charges. We have a major problem with accounting software Wingate. There are plans in the making to sell bandwidth centrally to faculties and other academic/administrative units in order to increase access.

Funding for ICT implementation—both university-wide and project-specific, such as the library (from the government, from the university, from donors) Mainly from University funds. There are now some donor funds in the pipeline.

Major challenges . Sensitizing stakeholders. Maximizing use of existing facilities that remain underutilized. (Installing 24/7 usage of facilities. Alternative power back up and general back up systems). Training, retraining and retention of staff. Lack of skills to use of ICT for serious academic endeavors. Inadequate funds.

Success stories—are there any departments or branches of the university that are using ICT particularly creatively? The Faculty of Law, University Library, ICT units and Bursary. Bursary used university funds to computerize financial services, independently of initiatives of the central ICT committees and units. Faculty of Law used internally generated faculty funds to extend the faculty network and other ICT facilities. The university library unlike many other departments and libraries have used their library funds extensively to support ICT development. Library has been innovative in using ICT for documentation and content creation. ICT units have been innovative with in-house training, international partnerships and content creation.

Also, please provide relevant URLs: WWW.WIDERNET.ORG/JOSPROJECT, WWW.ANATOMYJOS.TRIPOD.COM for the university, for departments using ICT, for the library, for government agencies or NGOs with relevant information about ICT in your country or institution.

July 8, 2002.