Varsity moves to Oracle platform

By ADAM GIFFORD

Otago University has signed up for a suite of Oracle's 9i technology as it moves to expand online services for its 18,000 students and 6000 staff.

Products include the 9i database, application server and developer suite.

Information services director Martin Anderson said the university ran a student administration system developed in-house on RDB, a database Oracle bought from Digital Equipment Corporation.

"We are on a development path from RDB to full Oracle," Anderson said. He would not break down the cost of Oracle, but said the university's IT programme, including the Oracle acquisition, the migration of existing applications to the new platform, a project to allow students to register on the web, and the purchase of new library and human resources and payroll systems, would cost about $6 million.

The library management system, Endeavour, is also used by Auckland University library and the National Library.

Otago is installing a web-based version which it will share with Waikato, Victoria and Auckland University of Technology, the first such shared services consortium in the tertiary sector.

Anderson said the built-in connectivity of the Oracle9i database makes sharing possible.

"By early next year students will be able to request and search for resources from any of the four university libraries.

"That means our systems will need to be able to read files from the other universities while also managing the increased demand from the combined student population," he said.

Otago has also invested in a web-based teaching system, Blackboard.

"About 75 per cent of students now do one or more papers over Blackboard," he said.

"We trialled it and have just signed up for the enterprise version, so you are talking six figures for licences, support and hardware.

Anderson said expanding the range of services students could access on the web was consistent with Government strategy.

The number of students simultaneously accessing online services is expected to double over the next two years.

"On peak days we've had more than 5000 students accessing the student administration system within a 24-hour period."