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University email systems

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
Our University Executive have just announced plans to scrap our student webmail. To replace the servers and find a reliable system will cost £250,000 apparently - a price they are not willing to pay. Yet this is the executive that paid £10,000 for their boardroom table and £8,000 picture to hang in their boardroom. And we are just finalising a new £20million building... :chin:

How many of you have student email systems - how reliable are they.

We are preparing to fight this tooth and nail as we feel one of the most modern and forward thinking universities in Scotland should have a reliable and robust student email system.

For the techies. We currently use Silkymail by Cyrusoft Inc. - apparently this is shite [not my words]. Any you would suggest?

http://webmail.caledonian.ac.uk
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    :yes: got a student e mail system..... not sure what it is though... but it 'aint as good as the one i have at home ;) .... its important for ALL uni stuff though... notices to students, etc. if your uni are "scrapping it" you could try and fight against it or put up with it.... good luck if you are going to fight it, but thats bloody bureaucrats / governors for you. :rolleyes:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We had the same Silkymail at my old uni (http://webmail.bris.ac.uk) but used Mulberry software for it on uni computers/resnet.
    Silkymail was truly shite though.

    Don't know anything about better ones as have no experience (yet) of anything else. However, scrapping it altogether would be a really bad move on their part so maybe they'll come to their senses soon and reconsider?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    A university without email will find itself without students before long let me tell you. I can't believe they're even suggesting that in the 21st century.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    xapis wrote:
    We had the same Silkymail at my old uni (http://webmail.bris.ac.uk) but used Mulberry software for it on uni computers/resnet.
    Silkymail was truly shite though.

    Don't know anything about better ones as have no experience (yet) of anything else. However, scrapping it altogether would be a really bad move on their part so maybe they'll come to their senses soon and reconsider?


    I'm at Bristol too. The Silkymail system is rather pants but all you need to do is follow the instructions on the resnet site and configure Mulberry to work from off-campus. It took me two minutes to do it and now I can access my email from the luxury of Clifton. Mulberry is a cracking little program. You can also search the entire uni email directory from it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We have a uni email that you can access from in uni and outside aswell. its brilliant cos lecturers tell you information about lectures, coursework deadlines etc. we have 140 people on our course so its hard to know everyone personally, email makes it much easier. we even had test results by email once!

    does anyone else have blackboard at uni? thats really useful aswell :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah blackboard is good... although it has an email facility but it looks as though we won't have an email system :confused:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ours is quite good, www.dur.ac.uk/webmail, i dont really know much about the software used or anything though, just that its IMP!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    How do they expect to be able to communciate with their students?

    Exeter does practically everything via the Internet - we have to print out our own University timetables to take to exams this year! We register online, pay our fees and accommodation costs if living in Univesity accommodation online and all communication with places like the library and the academic schools takes place via email - it's the most effective way of communicating information to the masses - and we're expected to check our email daily. Most of our learning resources (journals, lecture notes etc.) are all online, too.

    I don't know how your University intends to operate without a valid internal emailing system.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kath2003 wrote:
    How do they expect to be able to communciate with their students?

    Exeter does practically everything via the Internet - we have to print out our own University timetables to take to exams this year! We register online, pay our fees and accommodation costs if living in Univesity accommodation online and all communication with places like the library and the academic schools takes place via email - it's the most effective way of communicating information to the masses - and we're expected to check our email daily. Most of our learning resources (journals, lecture notes etc.) are all online, too.

    I don't know how your University intends to operate without a valid internal emailing system.

    I think they are only talking about the webmail service ie. allowing you to access your email from a non-networked computer ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    j@ck wrote:
    I think they are only talking about the webmail service ie. allowing you to access your email from a non-networked computer ;)

    Exactly, how do they expect to keep in contact with their students? Only a small portion of University students live in halls.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I have to say that by doing away with their email system there will probably be major problems. Although, having said that when I was at Glasgow Caledonian a couple of years ago I bearly checked my uni email account cos it took far too long to open up and I managed to get by ok so maybe it will be ok. But now I'm at a different uni I couldn't live without my uni email account. Its the best way to be kept informed about everything both to do with my course and the uni in general. In my opinion Caledonian do everything a bit backwards anyway so doesn't surprise me that they've came up with this "genius" idea.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    No J@ck, they are doing away with it completely!!! There will be no e-mail system at all.. This is the response from the Uni, to the Students' Assocuiation.

    "The existing student email system is overloaded and unreliable and cannot cope with increased demands. A new student email system has been estimated to cost about £250k to buy and a minimum of £55k to run. One free and viable alternative solution is for students to use their own email accounts provided by a third party Internet Service Provider e.g. yahoo, google, hotmail etc. This was discussed with representatives of the Students' Association at the Student Officer University Liaison Group meeting on 29th April 2005. Arguably this is a sensible prudent use of very limited resources. However there may be other ways that student email can be provided and other options are being considered and costed. As a safety net we are still going to encourage students to volunteer their own email address at registration because this will take the pressure off the existing system if no alternative can be found."

    This is shocking, what image does this set to potential employers? When fourth years email for future jobs, they will have to use a hotmail or google email address?? Does anyone else think that this is verging on the stupidity?

    We have had the local paper up, they are going to try and print this for tomorrow and personally I can't wait.. might show those idiots in suits in the Britannia Building what a sad state of affairs it is.


    If you support our cause, then please sign our petition, http://www.petitiononline.com/gcusa05/ and let them know how stupid this is. [We have already had Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and there are only one of them!! You don't have to use your real name but keep it serious]

    Glasgow Caledonian as a former poly and post-1992 uni, has always been in the view of the other Glasgow unis as lacking and poor. Well our own university executive have just proven that.

    Sweet Caley High they call us, and I agree. Because a university we are not!!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The IMP system that Durham uses is quite good, though I always preferred the IMHO system that they used to use, as it seemed more user-friendly and more reliable.

    I can't believe a uni is considering doing away with email entirely. The "savings" wouldn't be much, after the huge increase of paper memos.
  • littlemissylittlemissy Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
    Edinburgh Uni used Pegasus Mail for a while and then changed it to a web based mail which is alright. They also used First Class in the Education faculty and that worked really well too.

    Seems a bit strange that they are scrapping the whole email thing though ...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Panthro wrote:
    No J@ck, they are doing away with it completely!!! There will be no e-mail system at all.. This is the response from the Uni, to the Students' Assocuiation.

    "The existing student email system is overloaded and unreliable and cannot cope with increased demands. A new student email system has been estimated to cost about £250k to buy and a minimum of £55k to run. One free and viable alternative solution is for students to use their own email accounts provided by a third party Internet Service Provider e.g. yahoo, google, hotmail etc. This was discussed with representatives of the Students' Association at the Student Officer University Liaison Group meeting on 29th April 2005. Arguably this is a sensible prudent use of very limited resources. However there may be other ways that student email can be provided and other options are being considered and costed. As a safety net we are still going to encourage students to volunteer their own email address at registration because this will take the pressure off the existing system if no alternative can be found."

    This is shocking, what image does this set to potential employers? When fourth years email for future jobs, they will have to use a hotmail or google email address?? Does anyone else think that this is verging on the stupidity?

    We have had the local paper up, they are going to try and print this for tomorrow and personally I can't wait.. might show those idiots in suits in the Britannia Building what a sad state of affairs it is.


    If you support our cause, then please sign our petition, http://www.petitiononline.com/gcusa05/ and let them know how stupid this is. [We have already had Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and there are only one of them!! You don't have to use your real name but keep it serious]

    Glasgow Caledonian as a former poly and post-1992 uni, has always been in the view of the other Glasgow unis as lacking and poor. Well our own university executive have just proven that.

    Sweet Caley High they call us, and I agree. Because a university we are not!!
    Maybe they could charge students for the email and add it onto the fees. If they charged £10-20 a year I'm sure most students wouldn't notice on the bank balance with fees now at £1200. They could raise the initial sum through sponsorship and just raise the 55k from the students.

    I really cannot believe that they will scrap the email altogether. It's astonishing.

    Ask them if university staff will still have email access? ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh no, the staff email is staying - it is two independent systems. The staff have @gcal.ac.uk addresses, and the students have @caledonian.ac.uk - the staff use Outlook - an IMAP or POP or something. :comfused:

    Why should students pay for an email system? Every other uni has an email system why not Caley? We are supposed to be modern and forward-thinking - and it goes contrary to the "2010 Vision" that the uni published..

    It is a joke, plain and simple.

    Here is the students association campaign site: http://www.sa.gcal.ac.uk/main/representation/gcusa/campaigns
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Panthro wrote:
    Oh no, the staff email is staying - it is two independent systems. The staff have @gcal.ac.uk addresses, and the students have @caledonian.ac.uk - the staff use Outlook - an IMAP or POP or something.
    :lol: Why am I not surprised!

    That is bloomin' cheeky. The students pay to come to university these days.

    Write to your MP. Seriously.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Education is devolved to the Scottish Parliament... so it will be my MSP..

    Although guess who my MP is... Dr. John Reid... "Labour's Attack Dog" - so that might not be a bad idea. :chin:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Great. Just great. I finally choose a uni to go to and it starts falling apart :| Thank fuck I haven't applied yet.

    Our school system uses Outlook so why can't the students? It can't cost that much (come on, if Glasgow City Council can run it then surely a Uni can)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh! OK, getting rid of the email system entirely is completely ridiculous!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Excellent. Now get John Reid on the case. Woof woof.
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