May 2023
Since the last update in February, a message from Professor Andy Neely, Chair of the Information Services Committee, was sent to all University staff to inform them that work had begun on the formal drafting of the policy.
The first iteration of the draft policy was discussed by the Information Services Committee at its meeting on 28 March 2023. The committee endorsed the general approach and content of the policy, and requested that members of the Cambridge community continued to be kept informed about its development.
This update provides a general overview of the draft policy’s key features and draws attention to some changes informed by the consultation.
Issues addressed
The draft policy is based broadly on the principles set out in the consultation because the majority of respondents supported them: 65% were in favour of the proposals on eligibility or of having tighter controls, and 67% thought that the proposed transition arrangements were correct.
A significant minority of respondents raised concerns about the principles and recommendations set out in the consultation. In addition to those summarised under the section ‘Summary of consultation feedback’, the following points were also raised:
- On eligibility, further categories should be added, and potential disparities between University and College emeritus positions should be addressed
- On proposed transition arrangements:
- the suggested period of transition was too long
- there should be a longer or indefinite forwarding period to allow for contact arising from published academic papers, or from previous students
- the difficulty of transition for older people, and for the need for good support with this, and
- a perceived unfairness that people had assumed their work email address had been provided for life.
How have these been addressed?
- The additional eligibility categories put forward in the consultation have been recognised by the draft policy, and all emeritus positions will be eligible for email addresses
- Eligibility criteria have been reorganised from three ‘routes’ (consultation recommendation 2) into clearer and more equitable definitions. This includes those who are in contractual relationships with the University, as well as those who are in non-contractual but formal relationships, such as honorary or visiting positions, committee memberships or similar
- While the broad character and length of the transition arrangements remain (as they were supported by the majority of respondents), the draft policy includes a forwarding service for staff who need to retain their University of Cambridge email address for a specific purpose or reason that supports the University’s mission, renewable every three years. The draft policy also adds an exemption to loss of full email on compassionate grounds, to cover those for whom transition would be extremely difficult for particular personal circumstances.
Routes for retention of email addresses
Staff would cease to be automatically eligible for an email address once their formal or contractual relationship with the University ended, except where they:
- Hold, or are to be granted, an honorary or emeritus title
- Have left the University, but are still a member of the Regent House
- Have been granted an email address under a proposed retention service.
The policy proposes the following facilities through the retention service:
- Complete retention, with email permissions mirroring those held prior to the end of the individual’s formal or contractual relationship
- Automatic mail forwarding of University of Cambridge email to a private email address.
Individuals who are leaving without honorary title, and without retaining membership of the Regent House, but who will continue actively to contribute to the University’s mission, would be eligible to be considered for complete retention.
Individuals who will be leaving without meeting any of the criteria above, but who require a University of Cambridge email address to remain contactable via the address given on their publications, would be eligible for an automatic mail forwarding service.
All other individuals who need to retain their email addresses for a specific purpose relating to the University’s mission would also be able to apply for the mail forwarding service.
Detailed guidance on how the retention service would operate will be developed and communicated in due course.
Engagement with the Cambridge community
The team developing the policy has run focus groups on these proposals with key staff, including School Heads of IT, College IT Managers, Departmental Administrators, College Administrators, Secretaries of the Schools, and members of the Postdoc Academy. They have also had conversations with a number of retired University staff.
The Information Services Committee has also agreed to trial the policy for a year on a small sample of volunteer institutions, once it has been developed and approved. This would allow feedback on any omissions or implementation issues, and allow the policy to be adapted, if necessary, before it is fully launched. The trial year would run in the academic year 2023–24, with full roll-out during the academic year 2024–25.