Student user account extensions at the end of their enrolment/studies

• Sometimes MSc and/or PhD students who have completed their studies may wish to continue work on their research projects, with their supervisors, with the goal of submitting a paper(s) to a peer-reviewed journal. In these cases students and their supervisors need to organise some form of formal research relationship with the department so that the student’s ICT user account can continue to provide access to College computing resources. This is because all College user accounts are subject to College’ status, which means that user accounts cannot be extended without a formal relationship between the researcher and the College being put into place. It is better that this action is pre-emptive!
• For MSc students, normal user accounts are discontinued at the end of their registered period with the College (end of the academic year) and are replaced with an alumni account (that they need to activate) that gives them access to library and careers resources, but not access to other computing resources such as the software hub. Therefore if a student wishes to continue to access software provided by the hub, it is essential that their supervisor takes the necessary steps to establish a research relationship as mentioned above before the end of their period of enrolment with the College.

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Sometimes members of staff need to obtain or change an ICT user account extension, particularly where there is a need to extend research contracts or to change employment status to reflect new roles, responsibilities, or functions within the department. This can impact on the use of ICT systems so that individuals can access the requisite IT resources needed for their work.

It should be noted though that all College user accounts are consequential to employment status at the College, meaning that user accounts will automatically be set/provided following the processing of employees’ status changes via the usual HR routes and procedures. I.e. it is not something that departmental ICT reps have the ability to change.

Therefore, if it becomes clear that a member of staff needs to extend their user account, or obtain access to college systems due to planned changes in their employment, it is of paramount importance that the necessary HR procedures are initiated and processed asap to facilitate that change. Only after this has happened will the user’s ICT account be updated or created by ICT as part of that process.

Hardware and software procurement

• Any new IT hardware or software requirements need to be approved by an authorised budget holder. Firstly the requester (i.e. the person that needs the service) needs to research and identify the piece of hardware or software that is needed, obtain a quotation from a College-approved supplier and then seek budgetary approval for the expense before raising a Purchase Order on the ICIS system. This is the same procedure as for any new procurement from suppliers - such as furniture, stationary etc. Once the request has been approved by the budget holder and the PO has subsequently been raised and approved, the order will be processed to the supplier for delivery of the service at an appropriate time. New/replacement PCs and peripherals can be researched on the ICIS iProcurement web portal, and details for logging into ICIS can be found here. Note that the College’s preferred supplier for MS Windows-based machines is HP and on their iProcurement webpage portal new machines can be configured as per the user’s required spec’, and quotations can be generated based on saved specifications. Old machines due for replacement under the College’s desktop replacement scheme will be configured with standard hardware specifications and College software build.
• For students (PhD or MSc) who may require specialist software or hardware as part of their research work, this should be discussed with their respective supervisors as early as possible and then the supervisor should follow the above process for procuring necessary software or hardware, in advance of the work starting. A judgement needs to be made as to the appropriate budget that should be used to fund the purchase. This may be self-evident, when it is part of a dedicated research activity with an associated budget, but when there is uncertainty, the decision should be made in consultation with the departmental finance officer or other senior department staff member with responsibility for budgetary control.

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