Adelaide Uni offers Gmail to 16000 students

The University claims to be the first in South Australia to switch students over to the Google Apps suite.

Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor James McWha, said the University currently provides free email services to students but restrictions had to be placed on things like mailbox size due to the cost of providing the service.

Under the new arrangement, all undergraduate, honours and postgraduate coursework students will be offered the opportunity to switch over from their University of Adelaide email account to a new account powered by Google, McWha said.

The account will have the look and feel of Gmail, but the students' University email addresses will remain, he said.

Students can also take advantage of other applications such as calendar and instant messaging.

"The University has been actively working to find a solution to the increasing challenge of providing quick, efficient and greater capacity email services to students, which is something students at all universities desire. As our student population has grown in recent years, that challenge has increased," McWha said.

"We are confident that this new arrangement with Google will provide the best solution possible, offering students world-class email services and other online tools at no cost to them or to the University.

The move towards Google Apps is said to be just one of "a raft of improvements to student IT support".

Increased quotas for printing and internet access and increased personal digital storage space are also on the agenda, McWha said.