New student IT guide

You will need your student number to activate your Oxford username and single sign-on (SSO) password.

Your student number can be found on your University card or your UCAS application. If these are not available then you can contact your local IT support team.

If your university card has not yet been created, has expired, or has been cancelled, you will not be able to access university offered resources.

You will need to speak to your college about getting a card created or extended, as this is not something IT Services can help with.

Also known as your Oxford username, SSO is automatically created along with your university card.

It needs to be activated before use, and is used to access

• Nexus 365 email and SharePoint
• Virtual private network (VPN)
• IT Services Self Registration, for managing accounts and software downloads
• Oxford University Generative AI tools
• Canvas, virtual learning environment
• the CoSy course booking system
• the GNU/Linux service
• some department and college facilities

Our IT Services accounts page goes into more detail.

You will be prompted to set up one MFA method when you activate your SSO. We also suggest that you set a second method as backup.

Our Multi-factor authentication pages go into more detail.

You will need to create a Remote Access account before you can log in to Wi-Fi. Unless your college or accommodation is offering you something else, you will probably be using eduroam. Detailed instructions are on our dedicated eduroam page.

Remote Access is wholly dependent on the active status of your university card. It cannot be offered if your university card has expired or has been cancelled.

Our email service is called Nexus365. It can be used in a web browser or email client, and from any location.

We also have guides for setting up the most common email clients on:

• Windows
• Android
• macOS
• iOS
• Linux

Our dedicated How to access your University email account goes into more detail.

Your email address looks something like yourfirstname.yourlastname@yourcollege.ox.ac.uk, but check your self registration record to be sure.

You will also have an address for your department. These addresses deliver to the same mailbox.

You can change your default sender address on your self registration page.

Detailed information on changing your email address.

For full details on what happens to your accounts and information when leaving the University, please refer to our page on finishing IT use at Oxford.