WASHINGTON- The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced it intends to enter into a cooperative agreement for the management of the .edu Internet domain name space with EDUCAUSE, a non-profit group representing the technology needs of higher education institutions. 

In a Federal Register notice, NTIA said the agreement will facilitate policy development and technical operations of the .edu domain by a single responsible entity and provide a framework for the administration of the .edu domain. The .edu domain is the top level domain of the Internet domain name system that was established for use by educational institutions. Currently, .edu is generally restricted to use by four year degree granting higher education institutions.

EDUCAUSE represents a consolidation of two prominent higher education technology associations - CAUSE and Educom. An association with over 1,800 college and university members, it advocates the development and management of networking for higher education and has widespread community respect on Internet policy and technology issues.