Under the University’s policy on email retention, which took effect in May 2025, retired members of staff must meet the following eligibility criteria in order to retain their University Information Services accounts (formerly Raven).
Eligibility
A retired member of staff can be nominated by their institution to retain their Information Services account if, having having left a contractual relationship with the University, they
a. hold or are to be granted an honorary or emeritus title;
and/or
b. continue to be a member of the Regent House;
or
c. do not already meet the criteria in (a) or (b) above but will continue actively to contribute
to the University’s mission.
Examples of active contribution to the University’s mission might be continuing to contribute to:
- institutional research culture – for example, by convening seminar series or collaborating on research with institutional colleagues
- outreach activities or activities with societal impact, such as open days and schools talks or public-facing events linked to the University
- an institutional learning environment – for example, through committee service and other similar activity in a College.
If the retired member of staff is fulfilling an official role within the institution, for example, if an individual is contributing to a specified research project for a specified period of time, or filling an unpaid or stipendiary College office, or supervising students, then they would fall under the definition of staff or associates, and the institution should re-register that person as a member of staff or associate temporarily as appropriate.
Process
- If you are leaving the institution: UIS will email you to give you notice before access to your University email account is removed. We will start to close emails for retired members who are not eligible to keep their accounts on 1 May 2027. We are giving several months' notice and will issue reminders prior to closure.
- To prepare for closure of the email account, follow the advice for leaving the University by clearing your accounts, moving files and removing any subscriptions to mailing lists.
- If you need more time to make the necessary arrangements, you can request a short extension.
- If you are not leaving the institution, or if you are eligible to retain your email account under the eligibility criteria outlined above, you will need to contact your local IT or admin/HR team, who can nominate you to retain your account by completing a form to request that the email account remains open. Decisions on email retention will be taken by your Head of Institution or their nominated deputy.
Email sent from the University
If you are a retired member of staff and have been contacted about your email address, you can verify that the communication is genuine by comparing it with the emails on our webpage (University login required). There are 2 versions of the email: