McMaster’s student email platform will move from Gmail to Microsoft 365 cloud beginning in May 2021. The project was endorsed by McMaster’s IT Governance committees in January 2021. This follows the successful email and calendar migration for McMaster faculty, staff, retirees, and medical students to Microsoft 365 in 2020.

“This change is an important one for the university and allows for more efficiency, security and collaboration,” says AVP and CTO, Gayleen Gray. “With our current Microsoft license, the timing is right for this important step to streamline McMaster’s email and calendar environment to maximize all of our productivity and collaboration tools.”

Moving student email services into McMaster’s Microsoft (MS) 365 platform allows students to use the full integrated capabilities of the MS 365 suite of products and tools provided and enables cross collaboration between all McMaster constituents. The move to Microsoft 365 cloud email brings multiple features and benefits, including: reliable integration with mobile devices; enhanced security; hosting in a Canadian data centre; improved collaboration, and document sharing capabilities.

Student email accounts will migrate beginning in late Spring/early Summer of 2021. Access to the Google Apps for Education environment will continue for a period of time, so that students can transfer their data from G-Suite to OneDrive.

A robust migration strategy and communication plan will be available early April 2021. All students will receive communications and support in advance of their respective migration.

Planning is underway, guided by a Project Team and Project Steering Committee which includes representatives from across the university. Details are currently being finalized. Project information and pre-migration tips will be posted in the coming weeks to the McMaster MS 365 Hub.

Check out the FAQ to learn more about this upcoming change. There will be ongoing communications and engagement sessions around this initiative in the coming weeks