Durham University UK

Customer Spotlight

Durham University (DU) is steeped in history as the self-proclaimed third oldest university in the UK. The institute was founded in 1832 as Durham’s University College, before it was granted a Royal Charter in 1837 by King William IV, making it Durham University.

DU is incredibly proud of its heritage, but that doesn’t mean that it’s stuck in the past! They hold a number of core values which result in traditional principles with a modern point of view:

Inspiring - By stimulating an instinct to challenge, encouraging innovative thinking and taking our responsibilities seriously, we foster a culture that inspires the extraordinary.

Challenging - Always curious, we challenge ourselves and each other to answer the big questions and create a positive impact in the world.

Innovative - From creative teaching practices and cutting edge research to new ways of working, innovation is at the heart of what we do.

Responsible - We take our duties as a centre of learning, neighbour and employer seriously, embracing all of our different communities and celebrating the differences that make us stronger together.

Enabling- We create the opportunities, support and freedom for everyone at Durham to become the best they can be now, and for the future.

DU's AppsAnywhere Journey

A New World 

They had these values in mind when they created The New World Programme which started back in 2013. This compromised of a very large IT infrastructure and process improvements programme, which was all about giving people access to applications from wherever they are.

A Homegrown Solution

DU acknowledged that their previous system was very machine based, meaning they delivered software to a machine, rather than to a user. Initially DU decided that they were going to develop a brand new user centric desktop which would align all the variants that they had, aka kiosks, laptops, PC labs etc.

However they came up against a number of pain points, with the main issue being hardware.

The hardware that we had at the time just really wasn't suitable for Windows 10. IT was a nightmare to log on and a nightmare to Cloudpage the applications. It really wasn’t a great experience; we were talking about five minute log on times, maybe longer!”

“I'd like to think that the students would be really delighted by this as a project, because it gives them such a great level of access to applications. By giving students access to AppsAnywhere, it means that they can access those applications using whatever device they happen to have at the time and is most appropriate for them, in whatever location they happen to be in at the time!”

Looking Ahead

DU have stuck to their values by challenging their old methods, and by doing so have enabled a new innovative way of learning for their students. They are committed to being a part of a connected society with flexibility in everything they do.

We’re incredibly proud to work with this historic yet modern university, where we will continue to work together to provide modern, flexible learning to their students.