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Staff leavers: what you need to do

Leaving the University? This guide explains what happens to your IT account and data and provides the practical steps you must take to prepare. Ensure a smooth transition by handing over shared files, managing your research data, and returning all equipment.

Who this guide is for:

  • Employees with open and fixed-term contracts
  • Associate staff (eg visiting academics, research partners)
  • Postgraduate researchers

Changing staff status? If you're staying at the University but changing your role or association, you might be able to keep your account.

What happens when you leave

Your account and services will stop working one day after your official employment end date. We will email you the day before.

This ensures we can prevent unauthorised access to University data, and meet the requirements of research funders and auditors.

Your data will be permanently deleted after the retention period:

  • 12 months for most services, including filestores and Google Workspace.
  • 15 months for Microsoft OneDrive.

Need to retrieve data from a colleague who has left? Retrieving data should be an exception. Staff are expected to transfer any work-related data before they leave, and managers are responsible for ensuring this happens.

If you do need to retrieve data, contact IT Services urgently. Retrieval is only possible within the data retention period, and requires a clear business need and managerial approval. 

Key actions to take

Transfer shared files, storage and accounts

When you leave, anything owned by your University account will be deleted – including files and folders in your personal storage, as well as emails, surveys and calendar events. Even if you’ve shared them with colleagues, they’ll lose access when your account data is deleted.

Before you leave:

  • Move shared work into shared storage (for example, shared drives or filestores owned by a group, not by you), or transfer ownership to someone else.
  • If you own shared drives, accounts and groups, change the owner to someone else. 

Important: data classed as confidential and secret must be handled carefully. Check what’s permitted before you move or transfer data by following our Information and classification handling guidance.

Google Drive: transfer shared work and drives

Your Google Drive will typically include Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms as well as anything else you’ve stored there.

Transfer files and folders in your Google Drive

You can either move files to a shared drive or transfer ownership individually.

In addition, staff and students can check what files you've shared with them and tell you if there's anything they still need.

Transfer files to a shared drive in Google Drive (recommended):
This is the most secure way to ensure continuous access for your team.

  1. How-to: Find out what files you own in Google Drive.
  2. How-to: Find or create a shared drive in Google Drive.
  3. How-to: Move files to a shared drive in Google Drive.

Transfer individual ownership:

Shared drives: change the owner

If you manage a shared drive in Google Drive, make sure someone else is assigned as a manager so the group can continue to use it after you leave.

Shared drives can have multiple managers. Assign the manager role to another member of the shared drive.

Google Groups: change the owner

If you manage a Google Group that will continue after you leave, you must assign the owner role to another member of the group.

Meetings in Google Calendar and Zoom: transfer ownership

If you are the organiser of online events and meetings that need to continue after you leave, you must transfer ownership to someone else.

Filestore: transfer shared work

To see what files you own in your personal filestore, you can connect your filestore to your device. All the files listed there are files you own.

You can move or copy files from your personal filestore to a shared filestore. Alternatively, upload the files to shared storage, such as a shared drive in Google Drive. 

Microsoft OneDrive: transfer shared work

Files saved on a managed laptop are automatically stored in OneDrive, as well as anything else you've saved there.

You should not use OneDrive as shared storage. Instead, move files into a shared drive in Google Drive. 

  1. How-to: Find out what files you own in OneDrive.
  2. How-to: Move files from OneDrive to Google Drive.

Other staff and students can also check what files you've shared with them and tell you if there's anything they still need.

Shared email accounts (non-personal accounts): change the owner

If you own a shared account (non-personal account), such as a society email address, you must nominate a new owner to take over the account. This ensures they can keep accessing it after you leave.

  1. Check what other IT accounts you own:
    You can view a list of all your IT accounts from My IT Account, under Account Information.
  2. Nominate a new owner:
    If any of the additional accounts will still be needed after you leave, contact IT Services.
Email: share messages and attachments

To share a specific email or attachment with someone, you can:

  • Forward the email to them.
  • Save the attachment to a shared drive in Google Drive.

To share multiple emails:

Qualtrics: transfer surveys

You can transfer surveys from your University Qualtrics account to another account, for example, a colleague's University Qualtrics account.

Manage research data

If you have research data stored in places such as your personal filestore, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, you must take action before you leave. Review your data to decide what should be archived for long-term use and what can be safely deleted.

  • Delete securely:
    Dispose of research data safely if it is no longer needed.
  • Archive for long-term use:
    If your PhD research data underpins a publication or has long-term research value, archive it in a suitable research data archive or repository.
  • Meet requirements:
    You must follow any funder requirements, as well as your legal and ethical responsibilities, when managing research data.

Find out more about:

For more advice, please see the Research data management practical guide. 

Let others know you’re leaving

Once your account closes, your University email will stop working. This means all forwarding rules and out-of-office messages will stop, and you will not receive new emails.

We recommend you:

  • Share an alternative email address with contacts you want to keep in touch with.
  • Update any subscriptions with your new email address.

Return borrowed IT equipment

You must return all IT equipment provided or funded by the University, including anything bought with research funding. This includes returning laptops, headsets, monitors, webcams, keyboards, mobiles, and any equipment used for remote working. You must do return the equipment before you leave – coordinate this with your line manager ahead of your leaving date.

If you’re not sure where to return equipment or cannot get to campus due to accessibility needs, please contact IT Services. 

University equipment cannot be purchased or kept for personal use when you leave. If equipment isn’t returned, formal action to recover the equipment may be taken.

Once returned, equipment that holds user data (for example, laptops and mobile phones) will be securely erased to protect confidentiality.

Taking personal copies of files and emails

All data created or received for University business is the property of the University. While you may be permitted to take copies of some files and emails, you must be extremely careful to protect sensitive information.  

You must not take these files:

To comply with GDPR and University policy, you must not copy or save any of the following to a personal device or account.

What you can take

If permitted, you can keep copies of your non-confidential files and emails. Save them to a personal device or account using the guides below. 

If you are unsure whether you are allowed to take certain files, always check with the Data Protection team first.

Files and folders: download or transfer your copies

Save a copy of your files and folders before you leave, if allowed.

Google Drive

OneDrive

Emails: forward a copy

Some staff may want to take copies of emails from their University account. You can forward individual emails or attachments to a colleague or personal account where permitted.

We do not recommend bulk downloading or copying all emails, as this can include confidential or restricted University data, which could create a compliance risk.

Qualtrics: take surveys with you

You can transfer surveys to another account Qualtrics account, such as your independent account.

Reference managers: transfer your account and export references

To retain your references from Endnote, Paperpile or Zotero, you can export them to your personal device and import them into another reference manager.

To keep using your EndNote Web account, you need to update your account with your personal email address.

Changing your role or association at the University

If you're staying at the University but changing your role or association, you may be able to keep your account and email. 

Moving from a casual contract to a full staff member

Your department can set up an early registration associate record to keep your account active while HR updates your record.

Contact your department's People Database Administrator with any questions.

Becoming an Emeritus or Honorary Professor, or similar associate status

This applies to staff that are leaving the University but working for your former department in another capacity, such as becoming an Emeritus or Honorary Professor.

Your department can grant you associate status. This will let you keep your account and email access.

Contact your department's People Database Administrator with any questions.