CAAN and NREN agree to launch eduroam at TIA

KATHMANDU, April 21: The Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is set to launch the eduroam service. For this, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN). With this agreement in place, individuals at the airport will now have access to the eduroam network.

Eduroam is a globally connected network that includes prestigious educational institutions and research bodies worldwide. Each country has its own entity managing connectivity to this network, with NREN serving as Nepal's representative.

Eduroam provides a dedicated internet-like network for educational and research institutions worldwide. Users, mainly engaged in teaching, research, and professional activities, benefit from a secure environment where the risk of computer viruses is minimized.

This service grants users access to some of the world's most powerful supercomputers, eliminating the need for large individual servers for teaching and research purposes. With the eduroam service installed on their mobile devices or computers, users can seamlessly connect to any airport, university, or research institution globally without the need for repetitive logins.

NREN has been providing free eduroam service to all educational institutions and research bodies in Nepal. Even though NREN has been providing this service for many years, many institutions are unaware of this service due to the low priority given to research and continued practice of traditional teaching methods in Nepal.

When the country was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and it was impossible to conduct classes in physical presence, the curiosity about this network started to grow when NREN started offering online classes to educational institutions using Zoom.

After this, the number of members of the network increased significantly in a short period of time. NREN continues to provide its services even after the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have subsided.

In recent times, the number of NREN members has gradually increased, but due to ignorance, most of the educational institutions and research bodies in the country are still far away from the services that can be obtained from this network.

NREN operates as a registered non-profit NGO. While in other countries such entities are often government-run or affiliated with national-level universities, NREN's facilities are open to both individual and corporate members.

Numerous governments, research, and teaching institutions in Nepal are already affiliated with NREN. The network offers its members the opportunity to conduct online programs using Zoom, free internet access through professional networks via eduroam, access to research articles from esteemed professional journals, affiliation with international teaching and research bodies, financial and technical collaborations with these bodies, and the platform to showcase academic and research accomplishments to the global stage.

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