IT Accounts for Students FAQs

Your account is essentially a username and password which allows access to services on the computer network including:

• Access to IT Suite facilities including PCs running Windows 7. Applications include, Internet Explorer 9 and Microsoft Office 2010.
• A home directory (H: drive) for storing your files on the network.
• The University's email system using your @dundee.ac.uk address.
• Access to webmail and your home directory over the internet.
• Access to the My Dundee, the Virtual Learning Environment https://my.dundee.ac.uk/.
• Access to the University's wireless network.

At Applicant stage you will have restricted access to:

• My Dundee, the Virtual Learning Environment https://my.dundee.ac.uk/
• The University's email system using your @dundee.ac.uk address.
• You will not be able to login to IT suite PCs with your Applicant account.

Your username and password is the same at Applicant stage and after matriculation.

Admissions will write to you with your Applicant username and password, after they have received your application. They will tell you the web address required to activate your account and change your initial pre-set password. You will also be instructed how to access My Dundee.

Your full student account will be generated for you when Registry update your status in the Student Management System to 'Current'. This means your account is usually ready for you to use after matriculation. Your username and password will remain the same.

If you are not a distance learner you can register for your account as outlined below, in each case you will need to provide your matriculation card:

• If you matriculate at the start of the first semester and have not received our details at time of matriculation, please contact  ICS Service Desk
• If you matriculate at other times of year or (eg Nursing students for the January intake), facilities may be available in Bonar Hall or you may need to go to the ICS Service Desk.
• If you can't get your details during normal registration time you will need to go to the ICS Service Desk in person, and the Service Desk staff will give you details of your account.

If you are a distance learning student you should contact your department for details of your account.

The Password Mangement Portal is an online facility for staff and students, particularly distance learners and those off campus, to change their University of Dundee password required for many key University IT systems.

For more information see our Password Management Service Portal Service  information and Password Management Portal FAQs

Account names (and their associated email addresses) are generally formed by combining the users initials and surname. However these names and addresses must be unique, so when a name is already in use an extra letter (starting with z and moving down through the alphabet) is inserted between the initials and surname.

For example if John Smith works at University and has the account JSmith (email address J.Smith@dundee.ac.uk), then a James Smith joins then they will get the login name JZSmith (email address j.z.smith@dundee.ac.uk).

If you have registered 'Challenge Response Questions' and answers in the Password Management Portal you should be able to use this to reset your password. If you haven't registered these, or are unable to use this service, please contact the ICS Service Desk:

• You can contact us using our Online Enquiry  form or visit the ICS Service Desk. You will need to show your matriculation card.
Once you have logged in you should change the password to something only you know. See Security Tips for protecting your password.

Inform Registry that your surname has changed and your IT account will then also be updated. The operations team within ICS will contact you within a week of Registry changing their records with details of your new account name and email address, and a time for the rename of your account to take place.

Email sent to your old address will no longer delivered and will generate a reply message that the address is not valid.

Student accounts are held in a database called eDirectory. Each faculty has a separate 'container' for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The location of accounts in this structure affects the following:

• Which departmental support staff have rights to change the password on your account.
• Which servers your home directory and email account are stored on.

Yes. You will keep the same account, but depending on whether the course is in the same faculty your account, home directory and email account may be moved. This makes very little difference to your account except which departmental support staff have access to change your password.

Due to the number of account changes between the beginning of July and end of October student accounts are generally moved without notice. Outside of these months you will be notified of the move of your account.

Yes. Once you know the details of your new staff account log a call with the ICS Service Desk requesting your accounts to be swapped over. When logging the call you will need to provide both accounts names. The operations teams within ICS will contact you to arrange a time for the necessary changes to be made to these accounts.

Yes, because of the different requirements for staff and students you will have separate accounts and we currently have no way of merging them.

Whilst staff may only use one account they should still check for email to both accounts.

ICS start a purge process to remove inactive accounts during the last week of April and the last week of October. Initially an email is sent to all accounts due to be deleted giving notice of this. Two weeks later the accounts are disabled, and four weeks after this the accounts, their corresponding email accounts and home directories are deleted.

No, the University does not currently have a formal mechanism to do this.

It is possible to setup a rule within Groupwise to forward email to a new address however no support will be provided by ICS for this, and this will only last until the account is purged.

Clear out any files from you home directory which are no longer needed. There are CDROM burning facilities in most IT Suite PCs which can be used to make a copy these files if necessary.