Hertford College, Oxford, has successfully updated its student facilities to embrace the new millennium, using Molex Premise Networks cabling to install voice and data points in all student rooms. The first Oxford College to provide such a sophisticated level of Internet access to all students.
The challenge of installing leading-edge cabling throughout ancient buildings, some of which date back to the late 13th Century, without any cable routes showing to College staff and students, is not often faced by cabling vendors and installers. This is, however, exactly the brief presented by Hertford College to Molex Premise Networks and MaxResponse, the local company contracted to carry out the work; to install voice and data outlets in each of the 190 student rooms before the start of the new academic year in October 1999.
This project is typical of the forward-thinking nature of Hertford College, which until the 1960`s was one of the smallest and poorest of Oxford`s men`s colleges. A remarkable transformation began at the college in the late 1960`s - the redistribution of wealth from the richer to the poorer colleges and some early appeals gave Hertford a financial basis for expansion.
An innovative undergraduate recruitment policy attracted high-flying sixth-formers from the newly established comprehensive schools that had no previous connections with Oxford University. Academic standards rose rapid-ly and rose again when Hertford became one of the first men`s colleges to admit women in the 1970`s. By that time the new Holywell Quadrangle had been built and the next twenty years saw the erection of two further buildings, enabling Hertford to become one of the few Oxford colleges able to offer accommodation to all its undergraduates, who now number approximately 350.
Hertford College provides students with leading-edge technology
The provision of accommodation to all undergraduates has now moved several steps further with the installation of telephone and Internet access points in all student rooms. All other student areas within the College, from the Common Rooms to the libraries, were equipped with voice and data points. In total, 290 data points and 230 telephone points needed to be installed at the College over the summer months.
Technology-enabled student expectations create demand
Greg Jennings, IT Manager at Hertford College, Oxford, commented, "On arrival, students expect to be able to link up to the Internet using standard modems but previously we`ve had to install data points in their rooms on demand. For example at the start of 1998/99 academic year, 47 of the total 115 new students asked for an Internet access point to be installed in their room within the first week of term. Clearly this situation needed to be resolved, so the decision was taken to perform the installations in each of the rooms prior to the arrival of the new students this year. We asked MaxResponse, a local company with experience of working with Oxford Colleges, to carry out the work."
Jennings continued, "Over recent years we have experienced a rising number of undergraduates arriving with their own PCs. Last year 30 per cent of Oxford undergraduate students owned PC`s, with the number at Hertford being slightly higher at 40 per cent. This rise is a reflection of the working practices of today`s students, with more and more teaching material being made available as Web pages and students using the Internet as a key research tool. It is extremely important for students to have Internet access from their desks."
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