Who gets a myUCT mailbox?

All students email addresses will have a @myuct.ac.za mailbox, except for postdoctoral fellows. Postdoctoral fellows have a staff like email address, name.surname@uct.ac.za.

Are the myUCT email platform and OneDrive stored overseas?

myUCT is a cloud-based solution and everything is stored overseas. All user support and email administrative tasks (e.g. mailbox administration) are handled by ICTS, but we do not host any back-end systems on-site, except our own identity management servers (which we already had in production and use for account provisioning).

What username and password should I use?

Log on using your email address (studentnumber@myuct.ac.za) and your UCT password.

How do I open and view delivery reports in myUCT?

The Message Delivery Reports web article provides step by step instructions on how to perform these tasks.

Are my mailbox and personal information secure?

All information in our systems, no matter where and how they are hosted, is protected within the UCT domain and is subject to UCT's auditing requirements and processes.

UCT doesn't force you to add any personal information to your myUCT account.

Will there be less spam?

The Microsoft cloud-based email service uses Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) to prevent spam and phishing. Read more about the system’s spam filtering and message hygiene.

I get this error message: You've tried to sign in too many times with an incorrect email address or password

After setting up your new password in Password Self-Service, wait about five minutes before logging into myuct.ac.za so that the new password can be synced to all UCT systems. The error message might come up because you tried to get in too quickly after changing the password - and then kept on trying.

What happens to my email when I leave UCT?

You have full use of your @myuct account for life if you graduate from UCT. Students who do not complete their studies at UCT though, their mailboxes will be deleted.

All students who graduate from UCT will automatically be provisioned with an alumnus email address, name.surname@alumni.uct.ac.za. This alumnus email address will be created as an alias to your current myUCT mailbox and will be used as the From email address when sending an email. Your studentnumber@myuct.ac.za email address will still remain active - and you can choose to use it by selecting it in the From dropdown menu when you compose an email.

You will no longer be able to access OneDrive and Office 365 once you graduate though. It is your responsibility to move your data to another storage option before you leave.

Postdoctoral fellows

As a postdoctoral fellow you are provisioned with a name.surname@uct.ac.za email address and a secondary studentnumber@myuct.ac.za email address, which you can use for life.

When you leave UCT, the name.surname@uct.ac.za email address will no longer be accessible, but you can continue to access your mail using your myUCT mailbox, which will use the default name.surname@alumni.uct.ac.za email address. The mailboxes of postdoctoral fellows, who don't complete their fellowships at UCT, will be deleted.

You will also no longer be able to access your One Drive account or Office 365 once you leave UCT. It is your responsibility to move your data to another storage option before you leave.

Can I disable my account after I have graduated?

You will have access to your myUCT mailbox for life, but you can choose to simply stop using it.

Will I continue receiving emails from UCT and can I opt out?

You will continue to receive UCT emails until about 90 days after your graduation. Thereafter, your student account status will become inactive in the PeopleSoft system and you will no longer receive emails from auto-populated mailing lists such as the allstudents-l mailing list.

UCT does, however, reserve (and exercise) the right to use myUCT (specifically email) as the preferred method for communicating with registered students and alumni.

How do I change my email password after graduation?

Once you leave UCT you can continue to use Password Self-Service to change your myUCT account password. Ensure that your details are up to date on Password Self-Service so that you can change it whenever you need to.

Where can I get help with Outlook?

Go to https://support.office.com/en-us/outlook for help setting up and using Outlook.