Office 365 Subscription

Subscription

Microsoft provides a variety of Office 365 subscription plans to meet the different needs of different organisations. The University subscribes to the  Office 365 Education plan A5 which Information Services provides at no additional cost to The University and therefore is 'free to use' by all staff and students.

Our data is encrypted to the highest standard where it is stored and is replicated across multiple sites in the UK and in Netherlands.   Office 365 meets all our compliance needs and is the global leader in secure cloud platforms.

Office 365 Education Benefits

The following lists the key benefits to The University.

University Licensing Details

The University now has and operates two types of licences which are:

1.    Microsoft 365 A1 and 

2.    Microsoft 365 A5 licence. 

Most staff, including all in academic areas, will receive a Microsoft 365 A5 licence. Visitors and some non-computer-based staff will receive the Microsoft 365 A1 licence with security add-ons. Details of the services included for each licence type are available here: https://m365maps.com/files/Microsoft-365-Education-All.htm 

*Staff accounts that do not require some of the extra features contained in the A5 for faculty licence are assigned the A1 for faculty licence. This class of user accounts generally belong to staff that perform work that do not require a university computer and may not need access to the VPN. These accounts are determined using attributes within the email systems linked to their departments. While accounts may receive different sets of licences, we have made sure that all accounts will be equipped for work and security.

**The new account management service is equipped with the ability to amend licence assignment for accounts where required. An account can be upgraded to get the add-on services, if it requires it. This has cost implications to the University and will be kept under review.

Core Features/Services (Available in both Microsoft 365 A1 and A5 for faculty licence). 

• Microsoft 365 Email and Calendar  
• Microsoft Teams 
• Microsoft OneDrive for Business 
• Microsoft SharePoint 
• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), (Online version only, for Office 365 A1 license).

Addon Features/Services. (Available in only Microsoft 365 A5 for faculty licence). 

• Microsoft Power BI Pro*
• Microsoft Project *
• Microsoft Bookings
• Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing. 

*These addons are not available by default.

To request Power Bi Pro, please go to:  https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/computing/comms-and-collab/reporting-and-analytics/power-bi/power-bi-licences

If you think your account should have an A5 license, contact your local IT support or reach out to IS Helpline via: https://www.ishelpline.ed.ac.uk/

Apps & Features Release Policy

Release of new apps or features to The University via Office 365

University policy is to allow any new apps and features released by Microsoft to our Office 365 subscription unless there is compelling evidence which supports the opposite.  

Typically, any app or feature which might cause the university significant impact or requiring major change to implement, will be under review.  However, in some cases there will be no option to disallow updates and so we operate an early release programme whereby, subscribed members will get exclusive access to early previews.  Anyone interested in actively participating in the Early Release Consultative Group can subscribe using the following link:

https://mlist.is.ed.ac.uk/lists/subscribe/office365-earlyrelease

Full guidance, including terms & conditions are made available on subscription.

Platform Apps Under Review

Any app or feature which is placed under review will be on our apps review page, usually with a quick sign up option for early adopters, depending upon what stage it's at.

more details >>

1 platform completed review and is available to all staff & students.:

• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Teams Live Events - by request and subject to availability.
• Microsoft Stream - for use with Teams meetings and live events recordings.

2 platforms are pending review:

• Microsoft Bookings  Change Classification: Significant
• Groups in Office 365 Change Classification: Major

Help & Support Policy

We have 3 lots of platform apps with Office 365 and these are listed below with a description of the level of support available with each lot.

Lot 1.  Fully Supported Apps

Platforms or apps specifically revised and configured by Information Services for use by University staff & students via the University's Office 365 subscription. Information Services provides the user help via the IS Helpline, guidance and online tutorials or introductions via the ISG help pages. The apps include:

Messaging & Scheduling Collaboration Platforms:

• Outlook Email and Calendar
• Microsoft Teams

Online & Digital Events Platforms:

• Microsoft Teams Meetings
• Microsoft Teams Live Events
• Microsoft Stream Video

Document Collaboration Platforms:

• SharePoint & OneDrive
• Microsoft Office Online (Word, Excel & PowerPoint Web Apps)

Business Solution Platforms:

• Dynamic 365

Lot 2.  Free to Use (self-help) Platform Apps

Apps available to users 'as is' because they haven't been configured in any way by Information Services so the user gets 'out of the box' features as defined by Microsoft.   Information Services will endeavour to assist users seeking help, usually through sign-posting Microsoft materials, reference to community resources or liaising with Microsoft on behalf of the user.  The apps included (but not limited to) are:

• OneNote, Class Notebook
• Delve,
• Sway
• Engage
• Forms
• Planner
• PowerApps
• Flow
• Whiteboard
• Fabric Free

Lot 3.  Per User Licence (paid for) Platform Apps

Apps which have been paid for by a school, team or project sponsor and licenses assigned to designated users.  Help and support is by arrangement only and is the responsibility of the sponsor and project to define and deliver the required help & support materials.

• Power BI Pro
• MS Project Online Premium
• Microsoft Bookings

Service Limits & Boundaries

Office 365 Groups

Email

Mailbox Quota

Mailbox quota comes in either 50GB or 100GB. This limit is fixed by Microsoft as part of the service. The policy below also applies to every mailbox approaching the assigned quota limit:

1. 49GB/98GB - user receives a daily warning approaching quota limit.
2. 49.5GB/99GB - user is not allowed to send any email.
3. 50GB/100GB - user is not allowed to receive any email.

Microsoft Outlook users can see their quota in the Account Information located on the File tab of the software.

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Message size limit

The maximum message size any mailbox user can send and receive is 25MB.

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Maximum attachment size limit

The maximum size of an individual attachment is 10MB. Additionally, a maximum of 125 attachments per email message can be sent.

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Recipient rates

Each individual mail message can be sent to up to 500 recipients at once. Mailbox users can send an email to a maximum of 1500 recipients per day, and a maximum of 30 messages per minute can be sent.

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Email Deletion Requests:

In extreme cases there may be a requirement for the Service Owners to delete emails. Such cases usually fall into GDPR situations where data has been accidentally revealed. Email deletion does not have a high success rate and will not be successful if:

• The email is forwarding to another email address outside of the University.
• The email has been read and action has been taken to distribute it further (move, copy, forward).
• The email is downloaded or pushed to a desktop/mobile email application within the University that is not Microsoft Outlook.
• The email is downloaded or pushed to a desktop/mobile email application outside of the University network.

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Files

OneDrive for Business storage allocation:

OneDrive storage allocated to each user is determined by the license assigned to the user account. User accounts with A5 license subscription have a default quota of 1TB storage space to store content, while user accounts that have A1 license subscription have a limited quota of 100GB storage space.

The storage limitation for  A1 license subscriptions is due to Microsoft's storage policy for Office 365 Education plans. Effective February 1, 2024, OneDrive storage for A1 license subscriptions is now limited to a maximum of 100GB.

OneDrive is personal storage attached to your University account to support work here at the University. It should not be considered a place to store personal, University business or departmental information, such as official documents, shared team resources or research data.

Please note that:

• If you leave the University, your OneDrive, including all content, will be deleted at the end of your grace period. A few weeks after deletion, the data will then become completely unrecoverable.
• Visitor accounts have no grace period, so OneDrive data is deleted immediately when an account expires. It will then be unrecoverable within a few weeks.
• Data in OneDrive is controlled by you. Collaborators have limited access and control over the content when you are on leave or unexpectedly off long term.

Alternative solutions are available for storing data that may be more appropriate in many cases and do not incur additional costs to the University.  These locations are also not attached to an individual University user account. Examples of these are:

• SharePoint - For data that needs to be shared or used in collaboration with a group of people such as a Team, Project or Department.
• DataStore - For storage of active research data.
• MediaHopper or Microsoft Stream - For storing and sharing video contents.

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Document retention & recovery:

The deleted item recovery methods below can be carried out by the user right-clicking the deleted items box.

• Deleted items stay in the 'Deleted Items Folder' until they are manually deleted from there.
• Items purged from the Deleted Items folder can be retrieved using the Recover Deleted Items function for a further 14 days. After which they are completely removed with no means to recover them.
• Items in the Junk Email folder will be automatically removed after 30 days. It is imperative that you check in case items have been wrongly marked as junk email.
• Documents deleted from your OneDrive are held in the Deleted Items folder of your My Site for 90 days before they are purged automatically. They can be recovered manually by the user within the first 60 days after which it would require an Office 365 administrator to recover them within the final 30 days. After documents are purged there is no means to retrieve them.
• The University of Edinburgh does not take a backup of either the mail store or the OneDrive documents.

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The full scope and definition of the limits within The University's Office 365 subscription are documented by Microsoft and included in our tenancy agreement.