Password Policy Refresh

As part of the regular review of IT policies, the Password policy has recently been refreshed. This policy promotes good practice to ensure University systems and data are only accessed by authorised users.

  • Passwords must be a minimum length of 8 characters
  • Must contain at least 3 out of the 4 following: 1 capital letter, 1 lowercase letter 1 number and 1 Special Character
  • Acceptable special characters: ! # $ % @ ‘ ( ) + – ? [ ] ^ _ { } ~
  • Passwords will expire after 84 days
  • The previous 8 passwords cannot be re-used
  • Passwords must not contain your first name, surname or logon code
  • Six incorrect attempts to reset a user’s password will lead to a 30 minutes lockout from the system being accessed.

The University provides a self-service password reset facility which uses previously-registered secret questions. Users who have not set up their secret questions should do so by logging on to the Password Self Service page and clicking on the Set Secret Questions button.

When changing passwords users will see a reminder screen to ensure they are aware of, and consent to, relevant IT policies, procedures and legislation.  Further information on all the University IT policies is available online.