LONDON, June 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- Education and Research Sectors Have Until July 31st to Decide on Future
Access to Learning Materials

The UK Access Management Federation has reported rapid growth as the
deadline approaches for the further education (FE) and higher education (HE)
sectors and the publishing industry to decide on future access to learning
materials. Education institutions and publishers have until July 31st to join
the Federation. Joining the Federation offers members the option to
transition to new open standard access management systems that are SAML
compliant, such as Shibboleth.

Membership of the Access Management Federation now exceeds 380, with
organisations including the BBC, Microsoft, The Royal College of Surgeons of
England and Thomson Scientific having joined.

The Federation is operated by JANET (UK) on behalf of JISC (Joint
Information Systems Committee) and Becta and brings the entire UK education
and research sector a step closer to achieving single sign-on to network and
online resources.

In the past two months, membership of the Access Management Federation
has risen dramatically as educational institutions and service providers move
to take advantage of the numerous benefits of joining, including easier
compliance with regulatory requirements, improved service to users, reduced
support requirements and improved data security.

According to Mark Williams, access management outreach coordinator with
JISC, "We are pleased that so many universities, colleges and service
providers have elected to join the Access Management Federation. To date,
over 80 per cent of higher and 33 per cent of further education institutions
have joined.

"It is important those yet to become members are aware they have until
July 31st to do so or risk losing external access to JISC collections."

Joining the Access Management Federation is a simple process that can
result in significant cost savings related to access management.

About JISC

The Joint Information Systems Committee's activities support education
and research by promoting innovation in new technologies and by the central
support of ICT services.

JISC provides:

    - A world-class network - JANET
    - Access to electronic resources
    - New environments for learning, teaching and research
    - Guidance on institutional change
    - Advisory and consultancy services
    - Regional support for FE colleges - RSCs



JISC develops partnerships to enable the UK education and research
communities to engage in national and global collaborations to overcome the
challenges of delivering world-class ICT solutions and services.

Press contacts:

    Andrew Robertson, Edelman Public Relations
    T: +44(0)20-7344-1513
    M: +44(0)7811-341-945
    E: andrew.robertson@edelman.com

    Dr Philip Pothen, Press and PR Manager, JISC
    M: +44(0)7887-564006
    E: p.pothen@jisc.ac.uk