Management of the .edu.au domain for Australian Education and Training

.au Domain Space

Each nation has been granted its own unique two letter code to distinguish websites emanating from its own country. .au is the domain country code for Australian websites. Within .au there are a number of second level domains serving specific communities, such as .com.au (for Australian companies).

.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain space.

Role of auDA

auDA carries out the following functions:

.edu.au Domain Space

.edu.au was created to allow a unique space for recognised Australian education and training entities. As such, only approved organisations are eligible for an .edu.au address, ensuring that only educational related material can be found on .edu.au sites.

In 2001, the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) endorsed the Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee (AICTEC) as operating on behalf of the education and training sector for policy decisions related to the .edu.au domain space. AICTEC established a specialist sub-committee, .edu.au Domain Administration Committee (eDAC) to fulfil these responsibilities. Further information about eDAC is available at:

http://www.aictec.edu.au/aictec/go/cache/offonce/pid/98;jsessionid=A955E13BE139BA550990D09EFD89C860    

Introduction of User Pays for the .edu.au domain name

MCEETYA agreed in July 2002 to meet the first year costs (2002-2003) for the .edu.au domain space centrally and introduce a user pays system after that time.

All organisations with a .edu.au internet address, mostly education departments, schools, universities and registered training providers of vocational education and training will be required to contribute to the costs of maintaining the .edu.au domain from May 2004.

From May 2004 registrants are required to pay a fee to register a new domain for two years, or to renew an existing licence for two years, under the terms and conditions of the .edu.au domain policy. Documentation is available at www.domainname.edu.au    .

eDAC upholds the following underlying principles in terms of moving to the user pays system for the .edu.au domain space:

• the domain is to operate in the public interest and for the benefit of Australian education and training as a whole, not for commercial profit;
• costs will be kept to a minimum; and
• applicants will be subject to eligibility criteria, not just a fee, in order to maintain the integrity of the Domain.

Authorised Registrar for the .edu.au domain name space

education.au limited, (a ministerially owned company) was contracted by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) to act as the registrar of the .edu.au domain name. education.au limited took over these responsibilities on 12 June 2003. As such, education.au limited is the only authorised Registrar in the .edu.au closed domain space.