1. Why does student account naming convention need to be changed?
To cope with the 334 reform and School based admission, the University is moving to a more versatile curriculum design. It is anticipated that our students will have more flexibility in choosing their programs of study. As such, the existing practice that prefixes a department code (e.g. "bo_" for Biology majors) to the account name of UG student is no longer adequate to cope with the upcoming changes.
2. What are the benefits of changing the account naming convention?
New account name for UG students will simply reflect the name of the user.
A student's ITSC Network Account name will remain unchanged regardless of any changes in the program of study; or pursuit of postgraduate study after graduation. The inconvenience caused by changing account names will be totally avoided.
3. What is the format of a new UG account?
The generated account name for newly admitted UG students will be based on student's name (initials, surname), plus dummy characters in case of name collision. Besides, the maximum length of the account name will be increased from 8 characters to 12 characters without numerals or special characters. For details, click here.
a. Why don't we put surname in front of first name, and discard the dummy characters?
Existing ITSC account name is consisted of both first name initial and surname. Generally, most users adopt the English convention of putting surname after first name. As the length of account name is limited, chances of generating two identical account names are unavoidable.
A student's ITSC network account name will remain unchanged regardless of any changes in the program of study; or pursuit of postgraduate study after graduation. With the new account naming scheme (which excludes school prefix / admission year etc) the inconvenience caused by changing account names will be totally avoided. Besides, the account name should represent the account owner's name and identity in some way, which student number does not serve the purpose.
4. What is the maximum length of a new account name?
The maximum length of the account name will be increased from 8 characters to 12 characters.
5. When will the new naming convention take effect?
The new account naming convention will be adopted, starting from the 2009 intake the earliest.
6. Does the new account naming convention apply to current student?
The new account naming convention will only be applicable to the 2009 intake of students and it will not affect current UG students.
7. Will department prefix of UG accounts be changed for students transferring to another department in coming semester of 2009?
Department prefix of UG accounts will be changed, as existing practice does, for students transferring to another department in the Fall Semester of 2009.
8. How can I obtain more information - e.g. department and account type, of the account name?
You can look up for the user account information like UG/ PG status, and department, etc., at either of the channels below:
- People Search channel under myPortal
- University Communications Directory
9. Apart from the University Communications Directory, is there any other way to look up a user's account information?
Alternatively, you may look up the required account information like userClass (UG/PG/Staff), departmentCode, etc from our LDAP Directory Server. You may contact ITSC for more information of it.