Scope
For the avoidance of doubt, these guidelines cover the following Listservs; MANCHESTER-STUDENTS, MANCHESTER-PG, MANCHESTER-PG-TAUGHT, MANCHESTER-UG, MANCHESTER-UG-FIRST, MANCHESTER-UG-SECOND, MANCHESTER-UG-THIRD, MANCHESTER-UG-FOURTH, MANCHESTER-UG-FINAL.Purpose
These lists are designed to allow the University to transmit urgent, high priority or high importance messages to a large number of students simultaneously.University policy
The University's Computer Usage Policy includes advice on appropriate use of email, penalties for improper use, and privacy issues.Allowable uses
All messages submitted to these lists should be highly relevant to the core student experience of the vast majority of the intended audience.
Examples would be; major health and security alerts, substantial changes to the University's structures and procedures, major disruptions to the University and surrounding transport infrastructure , certain information the University has a statutory or legal obligation to distribute, exam timetable notifications, graduation arrangements.
Following negative feedback from students on the volume of mass-distributed, generic emails they receive (which they frequently perceive as irrelevant and even deem to be .spam.), and evidence these type of emails are not effective, the University has developed several alternative channels.
These include the weekly My Manchester News bulletin and the virtual Noticeboard in the My Manchester portal. A guide to these channels and how to submit items can be found here.
Blackboard is also an increasingly well-used and effective channel for communicating about specific relevant issues with students in specific Schools or at programme level.
Listservs should only be used if alternative channels can be clearly shown to be unsuitable and inappropriate; e.g. if a message is so urgent it must be sent immediately, if it is of very high importance to a large number of students, or if there is a statutory requirement.
The lists are carefully moderated by the Student Communications and Marketing Team in the Directorate for the Student Experience, to ensure effective communication with our students.
For any enquiries, or to discuss whether a message might be suitable, please contact Alex Waddington, Student Communications Manager.
Permitted users
Any member of the University or the Students. Union may submit a message to the Listservs, for consideration by the moderators
Users must send their message from an approved domain (e.g. @student.manchester.ac.uk, @mbs.ac.uk). These restrictions are necessary for the following reasons:
- The software automatically rejects messages not originating from an approved domain to prevent spam emails reaching the moderators;
- To ensure that replies to messages are sent to an address where they will be dealt with.
In exceptional circumstances, some other addresses may be permitted. Contact the list moderators for assistance.
Parties external to the University are not permitted to post items to these lists. In exceptional circumstances, and with the approval of senior management at the University, some key University partners may be permitted to post items to these lists (examples might be NHS, Health Protection Agency, Greater Manchester Police, Student Finance England)
Audience
In the case of the MANCHESTER-STUDENTS list, messages are sent to all University students who are currently registered with the University. Other lists, such as Manchester-PG or Manchester-UG-Third, will send messages to those students whose records indicate they are a Postgraduate student or a 3rd Year Undergraduate respectively.
Students are not able to unsubscribe themselves from the list and are responsible for reading and acting upon any relevant information.
Content and Format of Messages
Every message should have an appropriate 'Subject:' line . make it descriptive but keep it under 55 characters.
Compose your message in plain text or HTML. Keep your message as brief as possible and do not exceed 300 words or 40 lines (including blank lines between paragraphs). If your message is too long, it may be rejected automatically by the software.
Do not include an attachment with your message - the lists are configured to reject these automatically. If you need to communicate a large amount of information, publish it online (the University offers an online Documents Store service) include the URL in your message.
Use by the Student Union
The University has agreed with the Students. Union that it may use the ALL-STUDENTS list for the following;
- To distribute a weekly newsletter containing all relevant updates and announcements from UMSU.
Members of the Students' Union Executive and student societies can submit announcements to the Communications Officer of the Students' Union (comms@umsu.manchester.ac.uk) for possible inclusion.
Surveys and Research Volunteering
Individual students seeking participants for research studies or surveys related to their coursework can submit requests to the Research Volunteering website.
Links to these requests will be distributed to all students via the weekly Research Volunteering digest (to those who subscribe to it) and to University staff via the weekly eUpdate enewsletter. PLEASE NOTE: All research involving human participants requires approval from an ethics committee. Before any email requests for volunteers are published, they will be checked to ensure the appropriate ethical approval has been obtained.
Unsuitable Items
As stated above, these lists are designed strictly for the transmission of urgent, high priority or high importance messages to a large number of students simultaneously.
All messages submitted should be highly relevant to the core student experience of the vast majority of the intended student audience.
The following list is not exhaustive, and the final decision lies with the moderators, but the following items will not be accepted for distribution under any circumstances;
- Messages of a political or religious nature
- Messages promoting charitable activities (other than messages about RAG, which would usually appear in the Students. Union newsletter).
- Items of a personal nature.
- Adverts (e.g. items for sale, accommodation wanted or offered).
- Repeat reminders of a message already circulated.
- "Thank you" messages from a previous email.
- Messages not in English.
- Anything deemed unacceptable by the moderators.
- Anything prohibited by the JANET Acceptable Use Policy or the University regulations. This includes, but is not limited to, offensive or commercial mailings.
Approval mechanisms
Moderation
Each message is delivered initially to moderators in the Student Communications Team in the Directorate for the Student Experience. The moderators are unable to edit any message submitted to the lists: they will either approve it, or ask the sender to amend it for re-submission to the list, or reject it and suggest it is submitted to another channel.
Approvals or rejection of messages is usually done within one hour, but can take up to eight working hours. Decisions on messages which are on the borderline of acceptance or rejection can take longer.
Arbitration
If a sender disputes the decision of the moderators that a message is not suitable for distribution to a student list, the moderators may request the message is referred to the Director for the Student Experience and the General Secretary of the Students. Union for arbitration. Senders should note that this process can sometimes take several days.
Archives
You do not need to keep a personal copy of an approved message, as copies of all distributed emails are kept in: