April 2025
The General Board and the Council have approved an amended version of the Email Address Allocation and Retention Policy, which will take general effect from 1 May 2025.
Minor amendments have been made to the section of the policy governing retention of email addresses for individuals leaving the University who will continue to contribute actively to the University’s mission. The amendments do not change eligibility criteria for complete retention of an email address but do simplify the application process.
These amendments were recommended by the Information Services Committee (ISC) in response to data from a pilot of the policy (details below).
The ISC also recommended:
- Removing an automatic mail forwarding service for those who have left the University. There was no demand for this service during the pilot, and so the service introduced unnecessary costs and risks.
- Extending the standard grace period for continued use of email addresses for postdoctoral researchers, to support early career transitions.
- Making it clear that an individual who feels disadvantaged as a result of an apparent misapplication can raise a complaint or grievance.
The policy will be implemented for new leavers from 1 May. From that date, University Information Services (UIS) will also work with institutions in tranches to identify existing retirees impacted by the policy and advise them of the options available to them.
Outcomes from the policy pilot
A pilot of the policy ran for 18 months in Downing and Selwyn Colleges and the institutions that use the Clinical School Computing Service. On a monthly basis, UIS contacted leavers in the institutions to advise them of their options for email address retention under the policy. In total, UIS contacted 918 new leavers.
In a second phase of the trial, UIS identified 42 existing retirees with active email addresses in the participating institutions. It worked with the institutions to agree an appropriate approach to these individuals, in line with the policy.
Overall, the trial of the policy demonstrated no remaining concerns over the eligibility criteria for the allocation and retention of email addresses.
Data from the trial supported two amendments. During the trial, the only two individuals who self-nominated to retain their email address were already eligible to retain their email address through the existing, standard institutional nomination process, and were successfully redirected through that route. This was because the criteria overlapped. Retention of email could be simplified by redirecting it via the standard process. This would not change eligibility for retention.
Data from the trial also supported the removal of an automatic mail forwarding service for those who have left the University and are no longer actively contributing to its mission. No requests were made for the use of this service during the trial. Separately, concerns were raised about the potential damage and cost of this proposed service.
The General Board and the University Council will be asked to approve minor amendments to the policy before its wider rollout.
July 2023
The Information Services Committee (ISC) received another draft of the policy at its meeting of 23 May 2023. This draft addressed comments received during the period of engagement with the Cambridge community on the draft policy received by the ISC in March 2023. More information on this is included in the last update.
This second iteration of the draft policy was endorsed by the Colleges’ IT Committee on 17 May 2023 and by the ISC on 23 May 2023. The General Board and the University Council considered the draft policy at their respective meetings of 7 and 19 June 2023. Both committees approved the policy, at the recommendation of the ISC, for a trial year in the first instance.
The policy will now be piloted with a small sample of volunteer institutions in the academic year 2023–24. This will allow further testing and refinement before any wider implementation. The ISC will review the policy in the light of the trial, and the experiences of the participating institutions, in spring 2024. It will then recommend any changes to the General Board and Council.
We will continue to provide updates on how the policy is developing during the trial year on these pages.
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.
February 2023
Work has now begun on the formal drafting of the policy, taking on board the useful feedback from the all-University consultation that took place in late 2021.
The consultation sought views on a number of principles that might inform a new policy for allocating University of Cambridge email addresses. A brief summary of the responses received, and how they are shaping the draft policy, is given below.
The University is keen to use the insight, comments and recommendations from the consultation to produce a policy that takes a generous approach to eligibility while meeting important institutional needs around cyber security, data protection and reputation management. The University recognises that academics often need to retain their email addresses beyond their contractual period of employment.
The draft policy will be subject to an Equality Impact Assessment. As with all policies, it will need to be approved by the General Board and Council.