Portsmouth Uni students switch to Google

Portsmouth students will be given Google accounts to communicate with each other and their lecturers.

The University of Portsmouth has introduced Google Apps to its near 30,000 students, which means that they will be using services like Gmail, Google Docs as well as instant messaging with Google Talk.

The students will also be able to take advantage of the storage space that Google offers as a cloud-based service.

The university has bought Google Apps Education Edition, which means it is ad-free. Another advantage is the fact that students keep the accounts after they graduate, which could benefit them when it comes to networking for jobs as they can keep in touch with friends and lecturers.

"Switching to a more modern, easy to use system will save students time and make and make communicating with staff and other students a lot easier," said Jacob Leverett, vice president of the Student's Union, in a statement.

"Applications like calendars, messenger and shared documents mean university life is starting to reflect the way students communicate outside of university."

In February, The Guardian News and Media Group spoke to IT PRO about its own implementation of Google Apps.