Accessibility statement

Information for student leavers

This information applies to all students, including undergraduates, taught postgraduates and research postgraduates. This information does not apply to staff, who should refer to:

If you are leaving the University on completion of your course:

  • Access to most IT Services facilities (including email and York Print Plus) will be automatically withdrawn approximately 90 days after you finish your studies (the last day of the Summer term for most undergraduates). You will receive an email to warn you 30 days before these facilities are withdrawn and a reminder each time you log into an IT Services classroom PC.
  • Your access to many Library e-resources and the Yorkshare VLE will be withdrawn approximately 60 days after you finish your studies.
  • The data in your University Google account and your files in your personal filestore (M: and H: drives) will be saved for one year after expiry, to allow it to be reactivated should you return to the University during this time.
  • You will continue to have access to e:Vision for two years after your graduation.

IT Services are not able to extend access to your account. If this is required you should discuss this with your department's People Database Administrator.

This page gives pointers on what to do if you are:

For information on registering for an alumni email account, please see the Alumni Offers web page. For information on alumni access to the Careers Service, see Alumni: Need careers help?.

Leaving the University

Before you leave the University, we advise you to to check the following services and transfer data from your account:

NOTE: When transferring data out of your University account you must ensure that any confidential or restricted University data is NOT included.

For details on what the University classifies as confidential or restricted data see: Information classification & handling

Personal filestore (M: and H: drives)

If your personal filestore contains files that you will still need after you leave the University, you should take a copy of these before you go. If there are files that other people will need to access after you leave (eg shared research, society information), make sure that you share copies with them.

Please also see the information on research data below.

Email

Once your IT account expires all email will be rejected, with a notification sent to the sender. Any email forwarding that you’ve set up will cease to operate. We recommend that you make your contacts aware of your new email address before your account expires. You should unsubscribe from any mailing lists, or update your subscription with your new email address.

The University of York Global Alumni Association offers all graduates and retired staff a University email address for life, hosted by Google:

Exporting emails from your University account

You can copy your emails from your University account to another Google account:

The transfer will include

The transfer will not include

  • Inbox

  • All Mail

  • Labels/Folders

  • Starred emails

  • The read and unread status of your emails

  • Drafts

  • Replies

  • Sent Mail

  • Attachments

  • Spam

  • Trash

  • Contacts (these can be exported separately - see below)

  • Chats

  • Tasks (these can be exported separately using Google Takeout)

Depending on the amount of emails you have, it may take up to a week for them all to be copied over - but if your account closes during this time the transfer should still complete successfully.

Only the emails that exist in your account at the time you initiate the transfer will be copied. If you do the transfer more than once only new emails will be copied (so you won’t end up with lots of duplicates).

Alternative method

You can also download your data from Google. Emails will be downloaded as MBOX files which you might be able to import into another email service if your chosen email provider supports it. 

IT Services are unable to offer assistance importing MBOX files to other email providers, however Google provide links to instructions in the archive_browser.html file included in the download.

Exporting contacts from your University account

If you want to transfer your contacts you will need to export your contacts from your University account to a CSV file and then import this file into your personal account.

If you want to transfer your contacts to another email provider you will need to follow their instructions on how to do this. Most major email providers offer methods of importing your contacts.

Google Drive

You can copy your Google Drive data from your University account to another Google account:

The transfer will include

The transfer will not include

  • Everything you own

  • Everything you have stored under ‘My Drive’

  • Your existing folder structure

  • Any comments

  • Files stored in Team Drives

  • Google Photos (these can be exported separately using Google Takeout)

  • Any files you only have ‘viewer’ access on (not editor or owner)

  • Any files where the owner has turned off download, print, and copy options for commenters and viewers

  • Revision history

  • Sharing settings

Depending on the amount of data you have, it may take up to a week for it all to be copied over. Only the files that exist in your account at the time you initiate the transfer will be copied. If you do the transfer more than once everything will be copied again.

Alternative method

You can also download your data from Google. This allows you to download a copy of all or some of your data from Google Drive.

Any Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Drawings and Forms will be converted to another format of your choice. Please note that you will lose the revision history and (depending on which format you select) you may also lose comments.

Research data

If your personal filestore and/or Google Drive contains research data that you have created/collected, please ensure that you appraise your research data, and take appropriate action:

  • Dispose of research data securely, if the data has fulfilled its purpose.
  • Postgraduate researchers are encouraged to archive research data from their PhD research in an appropriate research data archive or repository, if the data underpins a publication or is considered to have long-term research value. You must comply with any funder requirements and meet all your legal and/or ethical obligations in this respect.

Please see the advice from the Open Research team on data management:

  • Sharing, preserving and depositing your data

Video conferencing

Zoom

If you have created any Zoom meetings using your University Zoom account, these meetings will not work after you leave. You can check what meetings you have created by going to the Zoom web portal > Sign in > Meetings. If a meeting is running after you leave, someone else (who is remaining at the University) will need to create a new meeting link from their own UoY Zoom account.

Google Meet

If you are listed as an ‘organiser’ of any Google Calendar events with a Google Meet link, you will need to change the owner of these events for the event/link to remain. See this guide on how to change the owner of a calendar event.

York Print Plus

You will need to give some thought to your printing account, and using up any remaining credit. Please note that any unused credit will not be refunded when you leave, or at any other time. If remaining credit creates a surplus, this will be used to improve the York Print Plus service.

Society and other accounts

If you are the owner of any other IT accounts then these will also expire at the same time as your main account. If any of these accounts will still be required by the University after you leave, please email IT Support so that ownership can be transferred to another member of the University.

You can view a list of any other IT accounts that you own on the My IT Account webpage, under Account Information.

For society accounts you should contact the YUSU Helpdesk to transfer the account to someone else.

Returning as staff

If you are coming back as a member of staff, or working for your department over the summer, you will need to contact your Department's People Database Administrator.

Any supplementary accounts you own will be extended when your main account is extended, although you may wish to transfer ownership of them to another user as appropriate.

Returning graduates

For most students returning in the autumn term, the 90 day period after your course ends will ensure that your account remains available until you return. If you do need to extend your account, please contact your Department's People Database Administrator.

Any supplementary accounts you own will be extended when your main account is extended, although you may wish to transfer ownership of them to another user as appropriate. 

In due course, as a returning graduate, you will be notified of your account details and the registration procedure by Registry Services.