If you are a guest at the Thuringian universities and technical colleges, you cannot use wireless Internet there without prior registration. The state sees the local authorities as having an obligation to set up free WLAN access.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - According to the Ministry of Science, there are no WLAN access points open to everyone at the Thuringian universities. "The provision of a public WLAN is not one of the tasks of a university," said ministry spokesman Stephan Krauss of the German Press Agency. The universities and technical colleges provided wireless Internet access for all employees and students as well as for guest scientists and other guests.
However, they would all have to register before using the access points, said Krauss. Anyone who only occasionally stays as a guest at the universities and therefore does not have such a registration cannot use these WLAN hotspots. There are also no open network access points at other state or state-funded educational and research institutions in the Free State.
According to the ministry, the Thuringian universities are connected to the Internet via the so-called German research network, which is also known as the science network. The state finances the universities' access to this network with 1.5 million euros per year. The statutes of the science network also do not allow any access open to the general public, it said.
So if free WiFi is to be set up at the universities, it has to be done outside of the scientific network - for example via commercial internet providers. "The willingness and initiative for such projects must always come from the respective municipalities and universities," said Krauss.
According to the Ministry of Science, there are currently only considerations for publicly accessible WLAN hotspots at the universities in Jena and Schmalkalden. Municipalities could, for example, also receive funding from the European "WiFi4EU" program, said the ministry spokesman.
The CDU parliamentary group had recently accused red-red-green of hesitant digitization in the education system. The CDU education politician Christian Tischner cited schools as an example: "Hardly any federal state is worse when it comes to equipping schools with high-performance WLAN and the daily use of digital media in the classroom."
