Accessibility statement

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a collaborative workspace within Microsoft 365 assists communication and collaboration with external organisations.

Overview

Eligibility

Microsoft Teams is provided to all members of the University as part of their account registration.

Features

Our implementation of Microsoft Teams gives you the ability to log in to the Microsoft Teams app on Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android when participating as a guest in a team belonging to another organisation. It can also be used for Video Conferencing when Zoom cannot be used.

Further information on when to use Microsoft Teams can be found in our usage policy.

Usage policy

Who is covered by this policy?

All staff, students and associates of the University of York.

What is covered by the policy?

This policy outlines how University of York users can access and use Microsoft Teams. It aims to clarify the appropriate use cases for Microsoft Teams at University of York.

The University has invested in a suite of tools to enable collaboration between staff and students. The recommended and supported tools are:

  • Slack for workplace conversation, collaboration and teamwork between staff
  • Zoom for video conferencing and phone calls
  • Google Drive for document sharing

Guidance on the use of the above tools can be found in our skills guide for remote working.

What should Microsoft Teams be used for?

We have enabled the use of Teams for the following use cases only:

  • Connecting as a guest to Teams set up at another organisation. For example, another university we are collaborating with, or a supplier.
  • Hosting Teams calls for people at other organisations, where the use of Teams is required for compliance or technical reasons. For example UK Government, NHS and schools.
  • Presenting to other organisations where Teams is the expected platform for collaboration.

What should Microsoft Teams not be used for?

Our default tool for video conferencing is Zoom. Therefore Microsoft Teams should only be used for video conferencing with external parties when Zoom or Google Meet cannot be used.

Microsoft Teams should not be used for collaboration between University of York users as this is provided by Google Workspace and Slack.

We do not support creating a team in Microsoft Teams at the University of York.

What features of Microsoft Teams are enabled?

All University of York users can sign into Microsoft Teams but functionality is limited:

  • University of York users are unable to create their own teams but are able to access teams created by other organisations.
  • All University of York users can schedule meetings in Microsoft Teams.

Help & troubleshooting

IT Services will attempt to resolve issues related to accessing and logging in to Microsoft Teams. The following articles may be of assistance:

For further assistance on these topics, contact IT Support.

As Zoom is our supported video conferencing platform, no support is available for the general use of Microsoft Teams.

  • For general advice, please see Microsoft's Help and Learning for Teams
  • Issues with the components provided by IT Services (principally the authentication service) will be investigated locally. Failures with Microsoft-provided components will be reported to Microsoft support where relevant
  • IT Services can only provide limited support for the use of Microsoft Teams when connected to other organisations. When connected to another organisation's team, the other organisation has access to troubleshooting information such as logs.