Important information on passwords for students

As mentioned above, before starting your studies at UWE, an e-mail is issued to you. The e-mail contains a username and directs you to the password request system where you can follow the instruction on screen to receive your initial password to log in to the PCs and terminals, but to also log into facilities such as the myUWE portal, Blackboard, UWE Live Mail, and other UWE systems.

In addition to your password, you may be provided with usernames and passwords by your faculty to access faculty developed resources. These credentials will be managed by the faculty and you will need to contact your faculty for support in these cases.

Managing your password

Prerequisite - Setting up a questions & answers profile and changing your password

Q & A Profile

There is a system called UWE Password Manager that you can use to reset your password, should you forget it. The first time you log in to the UWE network, it is recommended that you set up your Password Manager Q&A profile. You can then use it to change your password. Without setting up this profile, you will need to contact the IT Support Centre to ask them to help you reset your password, if you forget it.

How to set up the Q & A Profile

Please set up your profile by double-clicking on the ‘Change Your Password’ icon which may be placed on your desktop or within the Start Menu. This will bring up the UWE Password Manager web interface. Alternatively, you can go straight to the interface by typing https://password.uwe.ac.uk into a web browser’s address bar. To set up your Q & A Profile, please choose the option ‘My Questions and Answers Profile’.

UWE Password Manager Interface

When you get to the Password Manager interface, type in your username and click OK.

Choose the option “My Questions and Answers Profile”.

Type in your current password and click the Next button.

You will then be able to choose from a list of questions and provide personal answers to them. Should you forget your password in future and need to use the UWE Password Manager to reset your password, you will be asked two of these questions. So, please use sensible answers that you will remember!

The third question must be specified by you. You can enter pretty much anything you like, as long as you remember what the answer is. Finally, click the Finish button. If successful, you will see a screen saying you have finished setting up your profile.

How to change your password

At this stage, you can change your password, if you wish, by clicking on “Home” (in the right hand corner) to return to the login screen. Please log in again and use the software to change your password via the “Manage My Passwords” section. Here, you will be asked for your current password, and then asked to enter a new password twice. Enter your choice of password and click the Finish button. Please see the guide about choosing a complex password.

After you have successfully changed your password through UWE Password Manager, the change will immediately take effect in Windows, myUWE portal, Blackboard, UWE Live Mail and other UWE systems.

Resetting your password

Resetting your password when you have forgotten it is now something all users can easily do themselves, thanks to our Password Manager system.

Reset your password with UWE Password Manager

To reset your password, you must previously have registered on the UWE Password Manager website and have chosen three personalised questions and answers. These questions will be asked by the software when you try to reset your password. To reset your password, first try to log in on a computer by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Below the log-in dialog, you should see a bar with a button that says “Forgotten Password”. Click that button and wait for the Password Manager site to open. When asked, type in your username and click the OK button.

Once at the Welcome page, choose “Forgot My Password”. (If you do not see this section of the software, you have not set up your Q&A profile and will have to visit the IT Support Centre to continue.)

You will be asked to answer two of the three questions that you set up when you registered with the software. Enter your answers and click the Next button. If you answer successfully, you will then be allowed to set a new password. Set the password of your choice, click Finish, and close the page. You should then be permitted to log in with your new password.

Reset your password at the IT Support Centre

Alternatively, visit the IT Support Centre on the 3rd level of the Bolland Library on Frenchay Campus with your student ID card and the password can be reset for you.

Use of a Resetcode

Alternatively, IT Support may give you a “Resetcode” which you can use to reset your password via the UWE Password Manager process. To do this, you would click the “I Have A Resetcode” box instead when you access the site. Please note that your Resetcode will only be valid for 4 hours from the time of issue.

UWE Live Mail Password

For privacy and security reasons, your UWE Live Mail password is independent from your UWE system password. It is therefore important that you understand the following to avoid password issues: -

When we first create your UWE Live Mail account, we use the same password as your UWE system password.
The first time you use UWE Live Mail you will be asked to complete a few profile questions, which will include changing your password. At this stage, your passwords will be different.
If you change your password using UWE Password Manager, your UWE Live Mail and UWE system passwords will then be the same.

Other passwords

NB. The IT Support Centre can only reset your “system” password. Other passwords may have to be reset by your faculty.

NOTE: Password security depends on creating strong passwords and protecting them. For more information, see Related Topics below: Choosing Complex Passwords and Protecting your Password.

Choosing complex passwords

The choice of computer passwords is becoming increasingly essential to protect the IT environment in which we study and/or work.

Users must be vigilant when choosing passwords so that unauthorised people do not misuse the network resources, and compromise the security of the UWE network and personal data.

For this reason, UWE have adopted a policy of complex passwords for which students and staff have to choose passwords which cannot easily be guessed or copied.

Requirements

Students and staff must therefore meet the following requirements when creating a new password or changing their existing password:

Passwords must be at least eight characters long:
Passwords must contain at least one character from all three of the following categories:

- English uppercase characters (eg A to Z)
- English lowercase characters (eg a to z)
- Numbers (eg 0 to 9)

Passwords must not contain five or more characters from a dictionary word.
Passwords cannot contain the Pound Sign £ or other unusual regional characters such as ¿,Ø, etc…
Passwords must not contain three or more repeating characters

Tip

Random combinations of letters and numbers can be difficult to remember. To simplify this, you may wish to use a memorable word and replace key letters with numbers to meet the password complexity requirements; eg reMem63r, chAr4cter5, a5tron0My etc…

Warning – Do Not Use Special Characters!

Some users may be aware that they can use special characters such as ¢¥€©®_μ® and so on. However, the use of special characters is not advised, as some systems, that UWE Password Manager synchronises passwords with, cannot accept these characters in passwords. They will reject your request to change your password. Please ensure that your password consists only of characters from the following set of characters (note that £ is deliberately missing from this list):

!#$%&()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~

If you manage to use a character not in this list for your password, please reset your password at the earliest opportunity using only characters in the list above.

Protecting your passwords

To ensure security, passwords must be used carefully. The following will help protect your passwords:

Never write down your password.
Never share passwords with anyone.
Never use your password for another purpose.
Change your password every 60 to 90 days.
Change your password immediately if you think it has been compromised.
And set your UWE Password Manager Q&A profile to allow you to reset your password.

You should also be careful about where you save your password on your computer. Some dialog boxes, such as those for remote access and other telephone connections, present an option to save or remember your password. Do not select that option.