For quite some time now, IS has been aware that there is a growing demand for our research students to have continued access to their University email account after graduation.
We have now managed to make this possible for our next cohort of research students graduating next week. The technical solution was delayed by consideration of the upcoming GDPR (data protection) legislation due to come into effect next May. Under GDPR, we are required to get your permission to hold your personal data if you want your account extended beyond your graduation date with the university.
We therefore have set up an opt-in mechanism on the portal. This will be live in the next couple of days and graduating research students will see a banner inviting them to click through to opt-in.
The banner will look like this:
Some facts about this process:
- by default, if you do nothing, access to your email account will be stopped from your date of graduation. Your account will be kept for 3 months then deleted, in line with normal account processing. During this three month period you can contact the Information Centre to request opt-in. After 3 months it will not be possible to retrieve your email account
- to suffer no gap in service, please opt-in before graduating (sorry for the very late notice) – this will ensure you have no break in service. Your email account will be extended for one year only.
- if you don’t want continued access to your university email after graduation (or you do not want the University to continue to hold and process your personal data for this purpose), you can opt-out. However, this is non reversible decision and we will take action to delete your email account as soon as possible after your graduation.
Please contact the Information Centre if you have any questions.