Global connect

About global connect

As a UK organisation supporting research and education overseas, such as transnational education (TNE), you aim to provide the best possible digital experience to staff, students and researchers abroad – to fulfil your global ambitions and strengthen your overseas reputation.

But in order to deliver teaching and learning, collaborate, share resources and support research, your people overseas need reliable, efficient and secure connectivity between the UK and host country campuses.

This, though, is where challenges often start – because setting up global connectivity can be costly and complex. Working with connectivity providers abroad – each with its own country-specific procedures and policies – demands significant time, expertise and resources.

At Jisc, we can help solve these challenges. As the operator of the Janet Network, a national research and education network (NREN), we have close ties with NRENs overseas – putting us in a unique position to help establish the connectivity you need.

We offer this via our global connect service – so that when you plug into Jisc and the Janet Network, your UK institution can access campuses across the world.

How does global connect work?

When you use the global connect service, in the first instance we will look for ways to provide connectivity via our NREN counterparts in other countries.

If NRENs aren’t available or suitable, we will use our experience and knowledge with local telcos to help meet your connectivity needs, aggregating the demand locally where possible.

How does global connect help my organisation?

Global connect helps you to:

Improve the student experience

Seamless and reliable connectivity can help deliver a better experience for students based on campuses overseas (for example, branch campuses or partner institutions) – helping you avoid problems associated with degraded performance.

An improved user experience not only increases the reputation of your TNE activities, but can help drive postgraduate recruitment to the UK.

Improve the experience for staff

Access to essential services and resources – such as VLEs, teleconferencing, student record systems, and teaching and learning materials – helps staff based on campuses overseas do their jobs more efficiently.

This includes staff based in extended business functions – for example in recruitment offices located in a host country, who may need reliable access to UK-based systems and records.

Reduce risk and complexity

Establishing reliable connectivity overseas is a complex process for IT.  We help manage this process in order to reduce risks and complexity.

As part of the service we also negotiate and manage contracts across borders, working through local regulatory or legal challenges.

Often, we may have already worked with a specific country, which means we will rely on established relationships, quickening the process. In other countries, we will use our broad experience establishing connectivity in locations overseas.

Reduce cost, where possible

We work to keep costs down by making the most of our skills in procurement and negotiation. For example, sometimes we may be able to aggregate demand across many UK organisations, in order to strike a better deal.

Depend on our expertise

As a not-for-profit organisation working for UK education and research, we’re on your side.  We have knowledge, reputation and expertise in global connectivity.

Who is this service for?

This paid-for service is available to any UK institution delivering research and education with global ambitions. You don’t need a Janet Network connection to be a customer.

If you are interested in solutions for students and staff who are not campus-based, learning online from UK virtual learning environments, you may find solutions offered under the global education access framework useful.

Find out more

If you are interested in our international services, please contact your account manager.