The University of Western Sydney will furnish all academic staff and domestic first year students next year with a 16GB iPad to promote online learning.
Pro Vice-Chancellor of Education, Professor Kerri-Lee Krause, said that the University would distribute 11,000 devices under what is "believed to be the largest rollout of its kind ever carried out in an Australian university".
She said the move "marks the start of the University's major longer-term strategy to engage students in new ways of learning and interacting" with the institution.
"Under the banner of create@UWS, staff and students will work together to create new ways of engaging with knowledge within and across disciplines and in online, community and work-based settings," she said.
Eligible students would be able to collect their devices in early January.
The University noted separately that it would provide "all current students with a $50 subsidy on textbook purchases ... in an effort to support their studies in 2013"; however they did not qualify for the free iPad.
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