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Alumni Email Service – Frequently Asked Questions
For: Current students (students who will graduate or leave after 1st September 2025 onwards)
Overview
From September 2025, all students who graduate or leave the University will have one additional year of access to a University email account, with a further chance to opt in for another year after that period. This is part of our pilot scheme to continue to offer this as an ongoing benefit.
1. What if I have not qualified yet?
You will receive a Welcome email from the Office of Development and Alumni Relations (ODAR) after you graduate or leave the University – the welcome emails are sent out in either September or January. This will be the start of your one-year ongoing email access. E.g., if you qualify or leave in December 2025 you will receive the Welcome email in January 2026. You will continue to have full access to your computing account to May 2026, (approx. 5 months) and will then transition to an alumni email address until January 2027 when you will be given the option to opt-in for another year.
You will receive a Welcome email from the Office of Development and Alumni Relations (ODAR) after you graduate or leave the University – the welcome emails are sent out in either September or January. This will be the start of your one-year ongoing email access. E.g., if you qualify or leave in December 2025 you will receive the Welcome email in January 2026. You will continue to have full access to your computing account to May 2026, (approx. 5 months) and will then transition to an alumni email address until January 2027 when you will be given the option to opt-in for another year.
2. What if I qualify after the pilot scheme has ended?
At the end of the 2-year pilot, we will review how the extended email access has been used and evaluate the feedback from participants. This will help us determine whether a longer-term or permanent opt-in service is viable.
Our aim is to introduce an annual opt-in process beyond the pilot, though this cannot be confirmed until the scheme has been fully reviewed. Safeguarding alumni data and maintaining the University’s cyber security will remain our top priority. We will communicate the outcome of this review and any next steps in advance of the pilot’s conclusion.
3. What is the difference between a full access computing account and an alumni email?
You will continue to get approx. 5 months of access to your full computing account - ending in xxx@soton.ac.uk after you qualify, you will then receive a warning email giving you 28 days to remove (offboard) the contents of your student account (e.g., any files and data that you want to keep from your OneDrive account). As your email address turns into an alumni one, you will also lose access to the following university systems and services:
You will continue to get approx. 5 months of access to your full computing account - ending in xxx@soton.ac.uk after you qualify, you will then receive a warning email giving you 28 days to remove (offboard) the contents of your student account (e.g., any files and data that you want to keep from your OneDrive account). As your email address turns into an alumni one, you will also lose access to the following university systems and services:
- Personal Filestore
- OneDrive and any Office 365 services
- Banner
- SUSSED
- The University Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- Eduroam
- Public Workstations
- Blackboard
- eAssignments
- Efolio
- PGR Manager
- GitHub
- Most other services that require you to authenticate
This email will also explain that your student account will transition to an alumni email address.
As part of this transition, you will see your primary email alias change from @soton.ac.uk to @southamptonalumni.ac.uk, however emails will continue to be received from BOTH addresses. Outbound emails will show as being sent from @southamptonalumni.co.uk.
Please note, that all accounts must have Multifactor Authentication (MFA) enabled.
As part of this transition, you will see your primary email alias change from @soton.ac.uk to @southamptonalumni.ac.uk, however emails will continue to be received from BOTH addresses. Outbound emails will show as being sent from @southamptonalumni.co.uk.
Please note, that all accounts must have Multifactor Authentication (MFA) enabled.
4. Why do I need Multi-Factorial Authentication (MFA)?
If you have MFA turned on as a student, your account will just roll over to alumni status and MFA settings will stay the same.
We strongly recommend setting up a second method of authentication on your University IT account. This means that if one method fails, you have another way to authenticate and not be locked out of your account.
5. What should you do if you've used your student/alumni email in a paper, CV, or online?
Don't worry, this is the right thing to do as this confirms your affiliation with the University of Southampton.
Don't worry, this is the right thing to do as this confirms your affiliation with the University of Southampton.
Use your current student email address ending in soton.ac.uk. This will continue to work as an email address when you have an alumni email address - southamptonalumni.ac.uk
Research students who are publishing are encouraged to register for an ORCiD account via PURE. They can then update their email address in ORCiD as needed should this change.
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