QMU Accessing Systems

Accessing QMU Systems - A beginner's guide

Key steps for getting started

Matriculate

Change your password

You're good to go

Getting your account

You will receive a QMU student number (also known as your matriculation number) and a temporary password. The University will email this to you, along with a link to the website for online matriculation.

Take a note of your QMU student number as you will need this throughout your time studying with us.

Your QMU student number will consist of eight numbers, the first two being the year you first registered with QMU. So a student who first registers in 2019-20 might have a number 19012345.

Your email address is your student number followed by “@qmu.ac.uk”. So the student above would have the email address 19012345@qmu.ac.uk.

The first thing you need to do is matriculate online. Then you will have access to all QMU systems.

Matriculation

Full guidance about the online matriculation process can be found on our Matriculation web pages. You will need access to the internet and the following information:

QMU student number
Date of birth in the Western (Gregorian) calendar (day-month-year)
Address details

Your name and date of birth will have been entered into the system on the basis of the information provided to our staff. If you see any mistakes, please notify Collaborations Email Address

Please note that the name that appears on your degree certificate will be the ‘Forename’ and ‘Surname’ recorded on the system. If this is not how you want your name to appear, please notify Collaborations Email Address

You will be asked various questions that might surprise you, about your family, your previous education and your personal circumstances. We have to ask these questions for equality monitoring.

Some notes on specific questions:

Address – it is important that we have contact details for you, although most of your contact will come direct from the partner organisation with which you are studying. In particular, we will use the contact email address you supply here to invite you to complete our annual student survey.
Source of funding – for most partnerships you should select ‘Other’. This is because you will pay your fees to the partner organisation. The partner organisation then passes on part of that fee to QMU. (Some programmes have a different arrangement - see footnote.)1
Note that to complete the matriculation process you must agree to follow QMU regulations. You also agree to allow us to process your personal data to the extent that is needed for us to manage your programme and issue your award. This includes sharing data with the partner organisation delivering your course. We do not share your personal data with anybody else without your permission.

Passwords and password management

The next thing you have to do is register with our password management service. Visit Login Access

in your web browser and complete the sign-up process using your @qmu.ac.uk email address and the temporary password you were given.

You will be asked to provide answers to three security questions. It is very important that you answer the security questions with information that is memorable to you. You will need this when you reset your password.

Security questions include:

A memorable date
Your favourite colour
The name of your first pet

Note that there are different ways of writing dates so you might want to take a note of the format you have used. (Eg 23 August 2019 or 23/8/19)

Next, you need to change your password to something that is personal to you. This will stop anybody else logging in to your account.

To change your password go to Password Reset

Your password must be at least 7 characters long. This makes it much more difficult for the password to be guessed or 'cracked'.

Your password must contain 3 of these 4 types of character:

Uppercase letters (ie A to Z)
Lowercase letters (ie a to z)
Numbers (ie 0 to 9)
Non-alphabetic characters (ie $, !, £, % etc)
An example of a suitable password would be:Fr@nce98

Your password cannot be the same as your username. This would be a very insecure password, as it is very easy to guess.

Your password cannot contain your full name or part of your name.

You will use the same username and password to access the following systems:

Hub (virtual learning environment)
Library
E-Portfolio (if applicable to your course)
Student Portal (to see your results)
QMU Email
QMU student desktop

For security reasons, passwords only last for 365 days (one year). You can use your diary or an online calendar to set a reminder to yourself to reset your password before it lapses.

If your password lapses you will need to reset it. Go to:

Password Reset

You will be asked security questions to confirm you are who you say you are. These are the security questions you were asked when you registered. (See above.)

If you can’t remember your memorable information or can’t reset your password for some other reason, contact Assist Email Address Once you have a new password, you need to check your security information so that this problem doesn’t recur, visit Login Access in your web browser and complete the sign-up process using your existing @qmu.ac.uk email address and current password.

Full information about password management is on our website: Password Management

You may also wish to view our online IT induction at Online Induction

Note that this includes information for students who are studying on campus as well as those based at partner organisations.

You should now be set up to use QMU systems. Further information about the various different systems is below.

QMU email

Your email address is your student number followed by “@qmu.ac.uk”. An example might be 19012345@qmu.ac.uk.

If you are studying on a programme that is partly delivered by QMU then you will need to use your QMU email to communicate with QMU staff. You can access your email via our Webmail service. Go to

QMU Outlook Login Access

If you are studying entirely at a partner organisation, you will have less need of your QMU email. However, you will find that some other QMU systems send automatic messages to that account. Therefore you might want to consider setting up a rule to redirect some messages to another email account that you use more often. For example, it would be a good idea to redirect messages from Hub Access Email Address

Hub

You can log in to the Hub at Hub Login Access

Here you will find a user guide for students. You should also have been added to all your modules automatically. You will get further information from your tutors about how to use the Hub and the type of information you should expect to find there.

In many programmes the Hub is used for submitting assignments. It also provides access to the plagiarism checking software, Turnitin.

If you have a problem with logging in, check the following:

Has your password lapsed? (Passwords only last for 365 days) If yes, then reset as described in section 3 above.
Is your password ok but you can’t get in to the Hub? Contact Hub Access Email Address and provide details of the problem
Can you log in but not see your modules? Contact Collaborations Email Address and they will add you to the right modules.

Library

As QMU students you have access to a wide range of electronic resources, all of which are accessible via the internet from anywhere in the world. There are two main types of text that you will need to use:

E-books
Journals

Sometimes you will have been given a list of assigned reading for your module and you can search for these texts by name in the catalogue. However, you are also encouraged to use the catalogue to go beyond reading lists and to engage in your own research.

The key pages to start from are:

Students on business, hospitality and tourism programmes:QMU Overseas business, hospitality and tourism Webpage

Student on Health Programmes: QMU Overseas Health Students Webpage

Useful resources which will help in your studies are available from the Library website at:

Library Resources

Please take some time to familiarise yourself with all the information and, if possible, watch the library induction video. This will explain how you can find resources and how best to access them from a distance.

To find books, you can go to the catalogue and search using the title, author or keywords.

Library Catalogue Access

To find journals, it is best to use one of the journal databases. There is a list of databases relevant to each subject here:

QMU Journal Database Access

When you find a useful article you will click on the link to see the full article. At this point, you may receive a message saying that you don’t have access. Don’t panic! You can use our Shibboleth service to log in and access the full text. Look for the “Shibboleth, Institutional, or Federation login” link, select Queen Margaret University from the drop down list, and enter your normal QMU username and password when prompted. (Some resources have a search box to find your institution so just start typing Queen Margaret University in the search box and you will be presented with our login screen.)

Microsoft Office applications and other software

You may have your own software for writing essays, creating powerpoints and working on spreadsheets. However, it may be useful to know that as a current student of QMU you are entitled to free downloads of the latest version of Microsoft Office. Both Windows and Apple versions can be installed on up to 5 concurrent devices.

To access the downloads please QMU Webmail Login

Once logged in click on “Office 365” at the top left and you will be redirected to the Office 365 home page. The “Install Office apps” button will be visible at the top right.

Be aware that this is your own personal copy of Office and is not supported by QMU IT.

Training for Office 365 applications can be found at the Microsoft 365 Training

Student Desktop

It is possible for you to access all the software that we provide for students on campus. This is known as the ‘student desktop’. Reasons why you might want to use this service include:

Once you are logged in you will be able to access library content more easily.
You will be able to use the full range of software we offer students, including programmes such as SPSS and Mind Manager.
Any files you create will be saved on our server, which is backed up daily. Most students will not need to use the student desktop. However, it is an option if you want to access the additional software mentioned.

One Drive

You can also use Microsoft One Drive to back up your files. You are strongly recommended to do this. If you lose your work because you haven’t backed it up this will not be accepted as an excuse for late submission.

ONE Drive Access and log in with your @qmu.ac.uk username and password.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Advice
I can’t remember my username.	Your username is your QMU student number. It should be an 8 digit number.
I have forgotten my password.	You can reset your password by going to QMU Password Reset Page and answering the security questions.
My password has lapsed.	You can reset your password by going to QMU Password Reset Page and answering the security questions.
I can’t remember my security questions.	Contact Assist Email Address for help. Once they reset your password, go to QMU Login Access and edit your security questions
My password is up to date but I am locked out of the student desktop.	Goto QMU Password Reset Page and answer the security questions