Universities that grant doctoral degrees often have significantly faster Internet connections than other colleges and universities, and the bandwidth gap is expanding, according to a recent National Science Foundation survey.
The survey found that in 2008, the most recent year that data is available, nearly half of doctorate-granting institutions in the United States had bandwidth speeds of 1 gigabit per second or faster, compared with 25 percent of nondoctorate-granting institutions. A year earlier, 39 percent of doctoral institutions offered at least a 1 gigabit-per-second connection, compared with 20 percent of other universities.
That did not surprise Greg Jackson, vice president for policy and analysis at Educause, a higher-education technology group, who was not concerned about the gap. He said institutions with intense research demands are more inclined to invest in advanced bandwidth capabilities.
Mr. Jackson said the difference could become a greater issue as more colleges rely on online video for education. If more students attempt to watch video lectures at the same time, for instance, slower bandwidth speeds may cause pauses or degrade image and sound quality.
About $62-million in federal-stimulus money recently allocated to research and networking organizations through a U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network may help, he said. The National Broadband Plan, released by the Federal Communications Commission in March, stated that community-anchor institutions, including colleges and libraries, should have at least 1 gigabit per second of connectivity.
2 Responses to Internet Speed Gap Between Research Universities and Smaller Colleges Grows
a_voice - October 8, 2010 at 10:11 am
“…community-anchor institutions, including colleges and libraries, should have at least 1 gigabit per second of connectivity.” There are all kinds of things these institutions should have. The question is: Who is going to pay for this?
benatan - October 8, 2010 at 7:41 pm
I am disappointed that the NSF brief provides little context about important variables that would add meaning through context. ( I am further disappointed that the Chronicle reporters didn’t figure this out; I regretfully admit that reporting without questioning seems to be a trend in the Chronicle’s coverage of technology.)While total bandwidth is not irrelevant on its own, context is important. By way of example, there is a denominator: doctoral institutions probably also have, on average, more people, more classrooms, and more parking. Residential students (like many other people in their homes) can use large amounts of bandwidth for (perfectly legal) recreation as well as academic work.