Course sites that check your country

A course site, a lecture host, or a library database may allow traffic only from a country, or only from the university's own network. They read the IP address of the connection.

A VPN lets you exit through a server in another country. If the site allows that address, the page loads. If the site blocks known VPN addresses, or if it requires you to be on the campus network, the page will not load. That refusal is the site's rule.

Sign-in still identifies the student account. The VPN does not hide a username and password you type into the portal.