Email and calendar

Your email and calendar

Microsoft Outlook is the University’s supported email software. For training videos and more help guides, search the Outlook help center.



Sign in to Outlook on the web

Get Outlook on your phone, tablet or computer

You can install Office 365 for free on up to five personal devices.

    Phone or tablet
    1. On your phone or tablet, download Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android.
    2. Once installed, open Outlook and sign in with your Essex IT account.
    Computer
    1. On your computer, open portal.office.com/account and sign in with your Essex IT account.
    2. Under Office apps & devices, choose Install Office and then run the installer.
    3. Once installed, open Outlook and sign in with your Essex IT account.

    If you already have Outlook installed, you can add your Essex mailbox by going to File Add Account → enter your Essex email address and password.

    Share or open a calendar in Outlook

    You can share your calendar with others so they can view details about your schedule.

    Allow someone else to manage your mail and calendar

    You can allow someone else to manage your mail and calendar. The other person, known as a delegate, can receive and respond to email messages and meeting requests and responses on your behalf.

    Change your email address

    All standard Essex email addresses look something like re16495@essex.ac.uk

    If you want something like firstname.surname@essex.ac.uk, you can choose a preferred email address.

    Email quarantine

    Our email protection service (Barracuda) checks all incoming email for spam, phishing, and viruses before it is delivered to your mailbox.

    Email is either passed through and delivered to your inbox or held in your quarantine, where it will remain until you release or delete it.

    Shared mailboxes

    A shared mailbox makes it easy for groups of people to monitor and send emails from a single email address, such as it.helpdesk@essex.ac.uk, and share a calendar.

    Shared mailboxes have one or more owners, and they control who can access the shared mailbox. Before you can access a shared mailbox, an owner must add you as a member. You can check with the IT Helpdesk if you don’t know who the mailbox owners are.

    Add a shared mailbox in Outlook

    Once you've been added as a member of the shared mailbox you can add it to your Outlook. If adding the shared mailbox doesn't work straight away, please wait a few minutes and try again.

    Email lists and groups

    Email (mailing) lists let you easily send email to multiple people. There are different types of mailing list and membership may depend on your role at the University or personal preference.

    If you occasionally need to send an email to a large group of people and no mailing list exists for that group of people, then you can use our Mailshot service to send an email to a temporary, ad-hoc mailing list, of up to 10,000 recipients including non-Essex email addresses.

    Reporting suspicious emails

    Forward all suspicious emails to phishing@essex.ac.uk. Reporting suspicious emails means we can take action to prevent others from receiving it.

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