SUSE Expands Open Source Software Education to Hundreds of Academic Institutions Worldwide

SUSE^® is expanding its support for the next generation of open source software developers through the global growth of the SUSE Academic Program. The program is preparing developers in industries of all types to meet the changing demands of the digital economy by providing open source knowledge, training materials and a low-cost education buying program for the education community.

The SUSE Academic Program, founded in May 2017, has grown to include more than 400 universities, schools, libraries and other academic institutions. The program has also increased its support resources in North America and aims to double the number of participants in the next six months.

“SUSE has long been a champion of open source education, and our existing links to academia have allowed us to work with a high number of schools in a short period of time,” said Sander Huyts, SUSE Vice President and Academic Program lead. “We are committed to growing open source skills and education at the academic level, because we view them as critical to the long-term health of our industry and as fundamental building blocks of modern technology. We will continue to ramp resources and support to ensure open source continues to thrive.”

Demand for open source skills is at an all-time high and increasing every year. According to the Linux Foundation’s 2018 Open Source Jobs Report, hiring open source talent is a priority for 83 percent of hiring managers, an increase from 76 percent in 2017. SUSE’s Academic Program provides a variety of services to help meet the demand for talent and advance open source knowledge. This includes training for certified Linux and other courses, student curriculum materials for faculty and staff, free SUSE products for educational or lab use, a special SUSE buying program for educational institutions, development tools, and access to knowledge base, forums and technical support.

SUSE Academic Program Participants

The SUSE program is positively impacting the lives of educators and students around the world, including at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Czech Technical University, San Diego State University, New York City College of Technology and the University of British Columbia.

“Our university has been using the program for a number of students as part of the curriculum for the systems specialist program, for internal teaching and learning purposes,” said Werner Degenhardt, Academic Director and CIO at the Faculty ofPsychology and Educational Sciences at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. “We love the program, find it very easy to use and have seen it produce excellent results.”

Phillip Chee, Computer Science Technologist and Professor at Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario, said, “The materials provided in the SUSE Academic Program are very impressive. I am using the program to develop a lab for the students to install a small cloud and incorporating SUSE OpenStack Cloud into our operating system theory class.”