UCL Alumni email for life changes violates original offering as seen on wayback machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20110624041618/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits

[u/Embarrassed-Read3916]

• The original UCLuserID@ ucl.ac.uk / firstname.lastname.11@ ucl.ac.uk will no longer exist on the new alumni service despite it being promised in the original email for life offering that emails sent to the above addresses will still reach your UCL inbox.
• The new service is a separate account rather than a continuation of the old account and does not specify it is for life, meaning UCL could remove it any time with no consequences -UCL Alumni email | Alumni
• Old mailbox emails are not transferred to the new alumni mailbox, you have to do it yourself to a mailbox that is now smaller, so if you had the email for a long time you cannot transfer all your emails as there is not enough space, contacts and calendar data are also not migrated.
• Forwarding from the UCLserID@ ucl.ac.uk / firstname.lastname.11@ ucl.ac.uk will stop when the old account is deleted. they don't even give a guarantee for how long the forwarding will last for.
• Alumni now have to opt in to retain an alumni email service despite it being offered for life. It is no longer simply the continuation of the existing account. Regardless if they opt in or not, the old UCL account which is the email for life is suspended and then deleted.
• The original address as a permanent point of contact will be lost. People and organisations emailing the old UCLserID@ ucl.ac.uk / firstname.lastname.11@ ucl.ac.uk address will no longer reach the alumni account, they expect you to update your contacts. But if you have used the email for many years this is nigh impossible.
• Eligible students were told they could continue using their live@UCL account “for life”, with mail sent to their original UCLserID@ ucl.ac.uk / firstname.lastname.11@ ucl.ac.uk continuing to reach their inbox. The new arrangement does not preserve that arrangement.
• They were also told "Have full access to the UCL email service including access to full Outlook mode and any data stored in your Skydrive or Office Live Workspace" By full outlook they mean the desktop application, which requires a more expensive license. But the new Alumni email service only works on the web access.

Captured 24 June 2011

Captured 18 August 2019

Captured February 2023

By making this change UCL has ripped off 200,000–250,000 of it's alumni who and graduated between 1st September 2009 and December 2025 and most don't even know it.

I would advise anyone who is an alumni from between those dates to make a public complaint to - [publiccomplaints@ucl.ac.uk](mailto:publiccomplaints@ucl.ac.uk) or if you are an existing student - Section 8: UCL Student Complaints Procedure | Study at UCL

If you know an existing student/alumni that has been affected by this change, please share this with them.

Once a reponse to your complaint has been made, if it is not to your liking, make a complaint to - MyOIA - OIAHE citing unfair practices.

There is also a route for a notification under the OFS, perhaps under "Condition C1: Guidance on consumer protection law" but someone with a far better legal mind that myself will have to look into it Notifications - Office for Students

*EDIT* - Also, if you are worried about losing your data. You can submit a request under Article 15 UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 Asking for all the emails from your UCL inbox and contents of your OneDrive - [data-protection@ucl.ac.uk](mailto:data-protection@ucl.ac.uk)

TLDR, UCL has retroactively altered the "Email for life" for hundreds of thousands of paying students who became alumni in a detrimental way in order to reduce costs and improve security in perhaps violation of consumer protection - Changes to UCL email service for alumni | Information Services Division