Privately-Owned and Off-Campus Equipment

These guidelines contain information and advice regarding the management of privately-owned and off-campus equipment in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (FAHSS).

Privately-Owned Equipment and FAHSS

The term 'privately-owned equipment' refers to any item or kind of computer equipment (including portable devices) or software which is not provided by the University. As such, computer equipment or software purchases made via University accounts are not considered to be privately-owned. Whereas purchases made by staff through salary packaging are seen as privately-owned.

In FAHSS, Faculty Computing (FC) does not provide support for privately-owned equipment, as documented on their Service Catalogue and in their Support Guidelines. Sufficient budget and resources to support privately-owned equipment is not available. Specific problems with supporting privately-owned equipment include:

responsibility for any physical damage or data loss that occurs
software licensing issues
increased exposure to malware (for example: virii, trojan horses, worms, spyware)
defining adequate levels of hardware and user training before we provide support
stopping users changing things thereby endlessly causing IT problems
connection to services from home locations

FC does however provide some information for users wishing to connect a privately-owned computer to the Arts network (see links below). Note that, in most cases, UWA licensed software can not be installed on private machines but some specific product licenses agreements may allow for this. If in doubt contact ITS software licensing (see link below) or FC for advice. If specific applications can be installed on a private machine, then the user should manage this directly with their School or ITS, not via FC.

Occasionally the Manager, FC may direct the team to undertake specific limited work on a machine that is not owned by the University where this has significant benefit to the University. Examples of this occurring are:

connecting the laptop of a high profile visiting academic to the internet, if their visit is for a period less than two weeks (note that FCï¿½s ability to assist can be restricted by laptop settings), or
providing the infrastructure and documentation for students to connect their machines to the Student Network Access Project (SNAP service).

For more information about SNAP access:

Off-Campus Equipment

Occasionally a School, Discipline or individual will desire IT support at a location that is not an official place of business for the University (for example, at a home or external office location). Due to limitations in resources a long standing arrangement has been in place in FAHSS that requires all UWA-owned off-campus equipment to be returned to the Crawley campus (the place of business of FC) for any form of service to be provided. In very rare cases this policy has been varied where resources allow and it is of significant benefit to the Faculty. Note that in the case of units operating at the Claremont campus, FC staff are providing on-site IT support to that location.

Privately-Owned and Off-Campus Equipment

Privately-Owned Equipment and FAHSS

Off-Campus Equipment

Related FC Links

Related UWA Links