The process for registering a domain name depends on the name.

Subdomains within institutions

Responsibility for names of the form example.botolph.cam.ac.uk or one.two.three.dept.cam.ac.uk is delegated to computing staff in the relevant institutions. (Arbitrary nested subdomains are allowed.) Please contact your local IT support if you need a domain name for use within your institution.

Top-level domains under cam.ac.uk

The allocation and management of names within the cam.ac.uk domain is governed by strict guidelines overseen by the Information Services Committee (ISC) and set out in the Domain name policy. Applications for new top-level names under cam.ac.uk should be made using an online form. Further details and a link to the form are available in our Guidelines for requesting domain names within cam.ac.uk.

Institutions with excessively short domain names can request a long-form alias for friendlier email addresses and URLs.

In most instances, domains under cam.ac.uk are administered through the IP Register database.

Other domains under ac.uk

As with other non-cam.ac.uk domains, we host ac.uk domains on the Managed Zone Service. However, there is a more-complicated application process for ac.uk domains; contact mzs-support@uis.cam.ac.uk and we will guide you through what is required.

Domains outside ac.uk

Our domain registration and hosting service is called the Managed Zone Service.