Accounts, email and collaboration
Google Workspace for Education or Microsoft 365 Education, set up, administered and migrated, with one identity across every system. See Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for education.
IT services for universities, TVET colleges and training providers
Arke Technologies provides university IT services to public and private universities, TVET colleges and training providers across South Africa, from Johannesburg. We run the help desk under an SLA, manage accounts, devices, campus networks and learning platforms, help set university IT requirements and IT policy, and protect student data under POPIA.
What university IT services cover, and why higher education is different
University IT services are the systems and support an institution runs for students, lecturers, researchers and administrators: accounts and email, the learning management system, the student records system, campus networks and Wi-Fi, computer labs, research computing, security, and the help desk that ties them together. Campus IT services at a TVET college or private training provider cover the same ground at a smaller scale, often across several campuses. For schools, see our wider IT for schools and education page.
Three things make higher education harder than a business of the same size. At a university, thousands of accounts arrive and leave every year, so identity has to be created and retired from student records rather than by hand. Demand peaks at registration, the start of each term and exams. And many students bring their own devices, so the network must admit, and contain, equipment the institution does not own.
| Institution | What it usually needs first |
|---|---|
| Universities, public and private | Identity at scale, a help desk that copes with registration, lecture-hall and residence Wi-Fi, research computing and council reporting |
| TVET colleges | Consistent IT across several campuses, computer labs and workshops, and procurement documents for public bids |
| Private colleges and training providers | Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, a learning management system, online classes, and a student management system for enrolment and results |
A university IT help desk that students and staff can find
University IT support starts with a help desk that answers quickly and records everything. Ours follows an ITIL-aligned service desk practice: incidents, requests, problems and changes are logged as tickets, each ticket runs against the response and resolution times in your SLA, and recurring faults become problem records so the cause is fixed, not just the symptom. Monitoring checks each managed computer every 15 minutes and logs faults as tickets automatically; riskier automated repairs need a recorded human approval before they run.
We plan for the peaks with your IT department. Before registration we publish knowledge articles, switch on self-service password reset, pin known issues and separate a forgotten password from a network outage in the ticket categories, so the university IT help desk spends its time on problems only a person can solve. If you already have an in-house team, we work as co-managed IT, taking the IT service desk, the network or security while your own staff keep the rest, with the split written into the SLA.
Setting university IT requirements and IT policy
A university's published IT requirements decide what thousands of students buy before their first lecture, and its IT policy decides what they may do once connected. We help institutions write and maintain both, and the plan behind them:
Student IT requirements. The minimum laptop specification by faculty, the supported operating systems, the software the institution licenses for students, and what the help desk will support on a personal device.- A university IT policy. Acceptable use, account creation and removal, passwords and multi-factor authentication, data classification, personal devices, and how students and staff may use AI tools.
- An IT strategic plan for council. A multi-year plan that ties spend to teaching, research and risk, the technology and information governance King IV Principle 12 asks a governing body to oversee. Our IT consulting and virtual CIO service writes it with you; see King IV and technology governance.
- A device route for students. Where an institution runs a campus IT shop or a student device scheme, we supply devices that meet the published requirements through our trading division Server Hub, with a local warranty on every unit.
Looking for Stellenbosch University or Rhodes University IT support?
If you are a student or staff member looking for your own institution's IT help, such as the Stellenbosch University IT helpdesk, its IT hub or IT department, Rhodes University IT requirements or the Rhodes University IT shop, or Adelaide University IT support in Australia, go to that institution's own IT division. Arke Technologies is an independent IT company in Johannesburg; we do not run or speak for any university's IT department.
For an IT director, those searches carry a lesson: students look for the help desk, the device requirements and the place to buy a laptop by name. Give each answer its own clear, current page, written so a search engine or AI assistant can quote it, and the right answer reaches them before a support call does.
What we deliver for universities and colleges
Learning management systems
Moodle, Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams for Education, implemented and linked to enrolment so each student lands in the right courses. See our learning management systems guide.
Student records and campus management software
Choosing, implementing and integrating the system that holds admissions, enrolment, results and fees, and migrating data from the old one. See school and campus management software.
Campus networks and Wi-Fi
LAN and WAN design, Wi-Fi sized for lecture halls and residences, structured cabling we install, certify and document, firewalls and VPNs. See networks and Wi-Fi for education.
Labs, devices and lecture venues
Windows and Chromebook management through Intune and Chrome Education management, and interactive displays, with hardware supplied through Server Hub. See learner devices.
Research computing and private AI
GPU servers and AI workstations through Server Hub, virtualised infrastructure on VMware, Hyper-V or Proxmox, colocation in South African data centres, and private AI that keeps sensitive research data in South Africa.
Security and reporting
Microsoft 365 hardening, Microsoft Sentinel SIEM, Entra ID governance and penetration testing, plus Power BI dashboards for council and management. See cybersecurity and POPIA for education.
Governance, compliance and procurement
- Governance and reporting. An SLA that fixes scope, response and resolution times, exclusions, on-site policy, price per seat and term; incidents are prioritised from P1 (critical outage) to P4 (low-impact request), with response and resolution targets matched to the impact of downtime on teaching and agreed in your SLA. A monthly service review and report, a named service lead, escalation paths, change control and documented runbooks.
- Compliance. Student and staff records are personal information under POPIA, so we configure for data minimisation, encryption, access controls and audit logging, and work to King IV Principle 12 for councils, and to PFMA procurement and reporting disciplines where the buyer is a public entity. Our controls are aligned with ISO/IEC 27001 and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework; Arke Technologies is not itself ISO 27001 certified.
- Procurement fit. Arke Technologies (Pty) Ltd is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (sworn affidavit available on request), giving 135% procurement recognition. Company documents, a bank confirmation letter, our CSD supplier number and SARS tax compliance status are available on request, and we complete SBD forms when a bid requires them. You buy through a proposal, then an SLA for services, a purchase order for hardware, or our response to your tender. See company facts for procurement teams.
- Continuity. You own your data, admin credentials and documentation. One contract and one accountable team scale with the scope as campuses or users are added, and if you leave, your next provider or your own team runs from the documentation we kept in your name.