Teams should be the default platform for the University Of Kent. Zoom purchases can occur, but there should be strong reasons why Teams is not able to fulfil the requirement, and Zoom should not be the default option
Kent does not have an institution-wide Zoom licence, and Zoom is not institutionally supported. Use of Zoom incurs a cost to Divisions because we do not hold an institutional license. Zoom and Teams offer similar functionality, however, Zoom has some features which are widely requested, and Teams is currently unable to offer. Teams functionality is being developed to provide this and is likely to come online in the September term.
For the 2020/21 academic year, Kent will be able to run Microsoft Teams and Zoom in parallel. MST and Office 365 will continue to be the institutionally supported and developed collaboration platform,
with costs already covered through the Microsoft license.
All planning for 2021/22 onwards should be based on the assumption that Office 365 and Teams will be the platform to deliver remote teaching, learning, and research. For requirements that Microsoft Teams is currently unable to fulfil, you may use Zoom, however there has to be a strong and compelling rationale for this. Use of Teams is to be the default position, and use of Zoom is to be the exception and not the norm.