Impact of NRENs in Universities – The ZAMREN Experience.

Abstract

African universities are confronted with a tirade of challenges such as insufficient and still declining funding from governments, limited infrastructure, lack of advanced labs for teaching and research, high cost of best publications and databases, high student-lecturer ratios, global competition brought about by cyber space, research financing, scarce availability of academic staff, and high cost of ICT Services. Research and Education Networks (NRENs) are organizations defined as not-for-profit whose mandate is to create organizational and technical environment to support and enhance collaboration and sharing of education and research resources among universities, locally, regionally and globally. This paper examines some of the key needs and challenges the universities and research institutes confront and how NRENs can assist in addressing them. It also looks at how NRENs can create synergies with local telco’s and services providers to lower the cost of ICT services and products. It also discusses the impact of the introducing ZAMREN on the Research and Education Institutions in Zambia