MyOxford Student App

Enhancing the student experience to help navigate Oxford’s IT systems and resources

As part of the University’s Digital Transformation programme, a new app/portal was launched in September 2024 for students to give them a single, consolidated point of entry to navigate their relevant University and college systems, services and view key information more effectively. 

We are working closely with the Transforming Oxford's Digital Communications programme to ensure alignment between the development and refinement of the new student app and the new Oxford-wide intranet and web platforms that are being developed. 

About MyOxford 

The MyOxford student app is a cloud-based platform that aims to provide a greatly simplified way for students to access their systems and key information that they require to digitally navigate Oxford. 

MyOxford can be accessed as either a mobile app or via a web browser. The home screen contains tiles which either link to systems or signpost students to web or intranet content. 

Students' unique Single Sign-On (SSO) is integrated within MyOxford to allow seamless access to: 

  • Nexus365 (email, calendar, OneDrive) 

  • Canvas VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) 

  • Search Oxford Libraries Online (SOLO) 

  • Student Self Service (eVision) 

  • Careers Service 

  • College-specific systems and content, as well as newsfeeds 

The student app is called 'MyOxford' and is based on a well-established SaaS (Software as a Service) platform used by over 700 educational institutions that reaches more than 7 million students worldwide. 

Our approach 

Our objective was to deliver an initial, useful solution quickly in readiness for the start of the new academic year so that our students can use it and get early benefits. We will continue to develop MyOxford iteratively and will be releasing enhanced functionality regularly now that it has been rolled-out. 

In preparation for the large-scale roll-out, we ran a limited number of pilots with colleges and departments in Trinity term 2024 so that we could configure it as a more clearly defined offering for release to the wider collegiate university in Michaelmas term 2024. 

The aim of the pilots was to provide a small amount of working functionality to students, enabling the project to gain feedback on design and layout. We have also been working to design the support approach and understand any technical challenges that arise. 

Amongst our early pilots in Trinity term were Merton and Kellogg Colleges, Department of Politics and International Relations, Continuing Education (subset of students) and MSc in Digital Scholarship and Maths (PG programme). We also invited feedback from students from across Oxford to contribute comments and feedback. 

University dashboard content 

Content on the University dashboard of MyOxford, including news items and alerts, are manged by the AAD Communications team. MyOxford is part of a suite of University-managed channels to communicate with on-course students, and colleagues wishing to publish content within this area of the app are invited to contact AAD Comms to discuss requirements. 

Get involved 

If you have any queries about MyOxford, please email the MyOxford team: myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk  

There is a College Staff Group on Teams where college staff can ask questions about MyOxford and receive the latest updates from the project team. Please request to join.

Staff can now download the MyOxford app to understand the experience students have using MyOxford, or view the browser version.  

Students: Please see the MyOxford student page for help accessing and using MyOxford.

Further information for college and department staff

What do students experience? 

Once a student has logged in with their Single Sign-On (SSO), the content is personalised to give each student their own calendar, email and library loans and access to a range of other central services and resources. Visibility of college dashboards is based on the student's affiliation. 

The project is working closely with the Identity Transformation Programme within the wider Digital Transformation programme at Oxford to see how we can get more data to refine the audience targeted content further (e.g. department related content or bespoke student group content). 

 If you would like to see what the app looks like, you can:

Download this guide: What is MyOxford? Guide for Staff (PDF) 

Download the app as a member of staff, or view the browser version, to understand what students experience when using the app.  

Watch this MyOxford Familiarisation video (SSO required):

https://unioxfordnexus.sharepoint.com/sites/ADMN-UASMosaicDocumentHub/_layouts/15/embed.aspx?UniqueId=12fbbb62-6ae8-4a54-b91e-c0e131080961&embed=%7B%22ust%22%3Atrue%2C%22hv%22%3A%22CopyEmbedCode%22%7D&referrer=StreamWebApp&referrerScenario=EmbedDialog.Create

Who is the supplier? 

Following an extensive tender process, Ready Education were selected by Oxford as the preferred supplier with their MyDay product. It is a cloud-based platform, available as both a web portal and a mobile app, used by over 700 educational institutions and reaches in excess of 7 million students. 

At Oxford, MyDay is branded as MyOxford. 

Has MyOxford been designed with accessibility standards and usability in mind? 

The project team are working in partnership with the supplier, Ready Education, to ensure the app is AA compliant as possible with WCAG 2.2 digital accessibility standards. The app, as we have purchased it from Ready Education, has already been audited and we are aware of some known accessibility issues. We have prepared an accessibility checklist for new features as they are added. 

There is an Accessibility tile in the app which links to a website with the accessibility statement, including a list of known accessibility issues and suggestions for workarounds.

Is the app available to download direct from the University website, for students whose devices can't access Google Play? 

No, you can only download the app from either the Google or Apple app stores. However, MyOxford is also accessible via any browser for students who can’t or don’t want to download the app. 

 Do students need to sign in with SSO each time they use the app? 

In most cases, no. MyOxford contains many tiles that link to systems behind SSO, however these systems should not require students to log in to gain access after the initial login. 

If students are prompted to log in again with SSO, this may be because 7 days of inactivity have been logged. We encourage students to remain active every few days to avoid being logged out. Students may be asked to log in again on other systems occasionally as they may have different frequencies for logging in again after inactivity. 

Is the MyOxford app available to staff? 

The MyOxford app is primarily designed to serve as a valuable resource for students, with features tailored to their needs.  

As of October 2024, staff can access the app to gain insight into the student experience. However, staff access is limited to the University dashboard and does not allow access college-specific dashboards. 

Staff who contribute to MyOxford app content, such as the college newsroom and alerts, are granted access as needed. 

There are no immediate plans to develop MyOxford into an app for staff. However, the University’s planned intranet, OxIntranet, is expected to provide features designed to enhance digital experiences for staff. 

Do college staff get training on how to use the newsfeed and alerts functions? 

There are written guides for these topics: 

For additional support, please contact myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk 

I don't see my college or don't have access to the right permissions to use the newsfeed and alerts functions 

If you are one of the college-nominated staff who can publish news or alerts in MyOxford, you should be seeing options as detailed in the Newsroom and Ad Hoc Alerts guides (above). If you can’t access these options or cannot access your college dashboard, please contact the MyOxford team using a formal request to ensure that changes are carefully managed and suitably authorised. 

You can submit requests to the MyOxford support team through the IT Self Service Catalogue. Simply navigate to ‘For Staff’ and select ‘MyOxford’. 

Roles or personnel have changed in my college, and I need to update access to the college dashboard 

Periodically, it may be necessary to change the MyOxford permissions of a member of staff as their role changes. For instance, if a member of college staff has access to Newsroom publishing but now requires the ability to send ad-hoc alerts, this will require the MyOxford team to make a permission change.  

Conversely, if a member of college staff no longer performs a particular role in MyOxford, permissions should be removed so that ONLY members of staff authorised to perform key MyOxford tasks are permitted to do so.  

You can submit access change requests to the MyOxford support team through the IT Self Service Catalogue. Simply navigate to ‘For Staff’ and select ‘MyOxford’. 

Do I need to inform MyOxford if a member of staff leaves? 

If a member of staff leaves the colleges but retains their SSO (for example if they move to another role outside the college), a Service Request should be raised to delete their MyOxford permissions and access to the college dashboard.  

You can submit access requests to the MyOxford support team through the IT Self Service Catalogue. Simply navigate to ‘For Staff’ and select ‘MyOxford’. 

If a member of staff leaves and no longer has an SSO, they will automatically be prevented from accessing MyOxford and therefore no service request is required to remove a leaver. Note that retiring staff may retain some limited access to university systems and, if this is relevant, it is recommended that a Service Request is raised to delete their MyOxford permissions and access to the college dashboard. 

If a decision is made in the future to allow non-SSO users access to the MyOxford app, their access will be appropriately restricted, even if they previously had college-level access. 

 

How do I update something on our college dashboard? 

During this first phase of release the projectMyOxford  team can action these changes on your behalf. Please complete a service request and we will action it for you. The longer term plan is to hand over these permissions to colleges and allow staff members to be able to update elements of their dashboards themselves. 

How do I request a new staff member to be added to MyOxford? 

MyOxford is built for students, however staff that need access to publish news, alerts or help with testing or support students can get access to the app upon request. Please complete a service request or email us: myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk 

How do I add a news item or alert to the University dashboard? 

Content on the University dashboard of MyOxford, including news items and alerts, are manged by the AAD Communications team. MyOxford is part of a suite of University-managed channels to communicate with on-course students, and colleagues wishing to publish content within this area of the app are invited to contact AAD Comms to discuss requirements. 

How do I request MyOxford to link or integrate with my system? 

Please email the MyOxford team: myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk 

Can Colleges have access to change their own tiles as required? 

The MyOxford team is working towards trialling the training materials and sharing the dashboard editing permissions with colleges in Hillary 2025. The intention is that college IT and/or comms officers will have access, subject to training, to maintain their own dashboard, systems links and tiles. At this stage, you will be able to customise your college dashboard, including adjustments to the layout.

How are college systems and services handled? 

MyOxford enables each College to have their own dashboard. We are using Single Sign-On (SSO) data to determine access to college dashboards and systems for that college, so they will only be available to students at that particular college with the correct affiliation. 

How does MyOxford present links to other systems? 

There are three types of tiles on the MyOxford dashboard: 

  1. Integrations, such Nexus365 and SOLO, which enable students to see information and complete tasks without having to login to the downstream system 

  1. Links to systems with SSO, such as Student Self Service and CareerConnect, where the student can access the system without having to login again 

  1. Web content tiles, used for signposting content such as departmental or college web pages 

How does MyOxford work with the University-wide SafeZone app? 

The University is currently implementing SafeZone, a mass alert app for use in the event of a serious incident. Students who download the SafeZone app will get a notification sent directly to their phone (app alert/sms/email) in the event of an incident. The MyOxford project is working with the SafeZone project to integrate the two apps so that if an incident alert is sent from SafeZone it will also trigger an alert on the MyOxford app to students, increasing coverage of the notification. 

There will be an annual test mass alert notification from SafeZone that will also test the alert from MyOxford. The SafeZone project will release more details and the planning required later in the year. 

How is the app support handled? 

For queries and support with the app, students are invited to consult the App Support guidance on the student MyOxford webpage. 

If their issue can’t be resolved in the App Support guidance, students are prompted to log a support ticket via IT Self-Service. 

I have a student asking me to help with an issue. What can I do? 

You can direct them to our App Support guidance or log a support ticket via IT Self-Service. 

Students: please see the MyOxford Student page for help accessing and using MyOxford 

Is MyOxford going to be used for other groups without SSO? 

The scope for the initial launch at the start of 2024/25 academic year is enrolled students with SSO. The product that we have picked can be expanded to other groups such as offer holders, alumni, prospective students for open days and short courses. It’s a large undertaking for the university to rollout MyOxford and so the intention is that the project will focus on current students in Michaelmas term 2024 then start to look at the scope for the next phase of development. 

Will the app be available to staff? 

As of October 2024, staff can access the app or browser version to gain insight into the student experience. However, their access is limited to the University dashboard, and they will not be able to view college-specific dashboards.  
 
A select number of other staff from each college has access to MyOxford to publish news items, alerts and for testing .  

There are no immediate plans to develop MyOxford into an app for staff. However, the University’s planned intranet, OxIntranet, is expected to provide features designed to enhance digital experiences for staff, and will be available from 2025. 

Data accessible by the MyOxford app and its supplier, myday from Collabco 

MyOxford uses SSO details including name and Oxford University email and college affiliation to ensure that users can see the correct dashboards. These can be viewed in the users' MyOxford profile.  

The app also has integrations that users need to consent to on the University dashboard in order for various functionality to work. These are: Office 365 Graph which allows the Nexus365 calendar to sync with MyOxford (related to My Calendar tile); Microsoft 365 Mail which allows the Nexus365 emails to sync with MyOxford (relates to My Email tile); and Canvas which this allows the Canvas calendar and course details to sync with MyOxford (relates to My Calendar and Courses tiles).  

Data not accessible by the MyOxford app and its supplier, myday from Collabco 

Location data: there is no location data being extracted from users using the app.  

Expand All

The following project benefits are expected over the lifetime of the project and beyond: 

  • MyOxford aims to deliver a new portal for students to give them a single, consolidated point of entry to navigate their relevant University and college systems, services and view key information more effectively 

  • The University of Oxford enjoys a reputation as a world leading institution and, as such, students should expect a high-quality digital experience to match the quality of other aspects of their life at Oxford. The reality is that the complexities of Oxford’s systems often detract from this. The implementation of a student app helps reduce the risk of reputational impacts 

  • By personalising and streamlining student communication, MyOxford will act as an enabler, helping to reduce the administration overhead of sending and chasing emails 

  • The provision of a central app with easy to navigate tiles should benefit students with disabilities and specific needs, enabling them to participate more equally in teaching and learning 

The project board ran throughout 2023-24 and membership reflected the range of interests and stakeholders responsible for supporting the change. It will be replaced with a user group later in 2025 as the main project stage has now been completed with the launch of the app. Find out more about them below:

Project Joint Sponsors:

  • Elaine Aitken, Head of Student Systems and Education Portfolio Lead 

  • Fiona Whitehouse, Head of the Internship Office, Oxford University Careers Service 

Project Board Members:

  • Jo Begbie, Astrophoria Foundation Year Director 

  • Andrew Bonnie 

  • Dr Toby Martin, Director of Online Short Courses, Departmental Lecturer in Archaeology, Department for Continuing Education 

  • Kian Deeney 

  • Lauren Gale, Senior Communications Manager - Students and Academic Administration Division 

  • Erin Gordon, Head of Strategic Planning and Projects, Humanities Division 

  • Jane Gover 

  • Richard McDonald, Head of Technical Architecture and Projects, IT Services 

  • Andy Menmuir, Senior Business Change Manager 

  • Nick Perry, Education Portfolio Manager 

  • Dan Selinger, Head of Communications and Engagement - Professional Services 

  • Dave Smith, Enterprise IT Architect 

  • Kat Southwell, Project Manager 

  • Natasha Treuen 

  • James Tibbert 

  • Claudia Waldner 

If you have any queries about MyOxford, please email myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk

myoxford logo colour green blue

Contact us

If you have any queries about MyOxford, please email myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk 

Student information