Open-source software is advancing in UK education, with more than three-quarters of colleges and universities considering this model when making IT decisions.

Seventy-seven percent of academic institutions said they examine open-source options on a regular basis, according to a survey released today (7 August) by OSS Watch, an advisory service for education that is funded by Jisc, a committee that advocates innovative use of IT in education.

Some open-source programs are becoming the leading products in their categories. For example, Moodle, the open-source course management system is now adopted at 56 percent of colleges.

“We found a mixed economy out there but there is healthy use of open-source software,” said Randy Metcalfe, OSS Watch manager. “I don’t see ideological uptake but a lot of people seem to be doing choosing open-source for the best reasons such as cost saving, interoperability or security. What’s more surprising is Moodle. Market forces are driving this uptake and when they take hold they take effect very quickly.”

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they had deployed Firefox as well as Internet Explorer.

“They’re willing to take a little bit of pain on the extra technical support because they feel they need to provide an alternative,” Metcalfe said. “It hasn’t happened yet but in the future that attitude could translate into open-source desktops.”

However, only 25 percent of institutions made specific reference to “open source” in their policies.

“Many don’t have a formal policy or at least the formal policy isn’t in their IT strategy. We would welcome more explicit reference to open-source software in policies,” said Metcalfe.