Student account

1. Confirm your study place and register to the University

The system creates the new student's user account after you have first confirmed your study place and registered to the University. The user account is created within a week after university registration, however in the fall semester earliest on August 1st.

• Instructions and information: New Students | Study Place Confirmation and Registration

2. Activate your user account

• If you have previously had a user account for the University of Oulu or Oamk, you will have the same account. In that case, no e-mail notification will be sent. If you can't remember your account or password, go to the university Passwd service. Then set up an up-to-date authentication method for your MS account.

Once you have received an e-mail message then your user account has been created, go to set a password for it in the university Passwd service:

https://account.oulu.fi/passwd

When you do not know both your account and its password, you have to identify through Suomi.fi e-Identification:

• Usually in order to verify your identity, you need both a Finnish personal identification code and your personal online banking account for one of these banks: Aktia | Danske Bank | Handelsbanken | Nordea | Oma Säästöpankki | Osuuspankki | POP Pankki | S-Pankki | Säästöpankki | Ålandsbanken. Read more: Online banking codes - Suomi.fi
• E-identification is possible with a Finnish mobile certificate too. Read more: Mobile certificate - Suomi.fi.
• A Finnish ID card can be used for E-Identification, read more: ID card issued by the Police - Suomi.fi.

N.B. If you can not use Suomi.fi e-Identification, then come to visit Campus ICT service point, prove your identity there to receive your student account and password. Please, prepare yourself for queueing!

During the online activation procedure:

• If you get, during the activation, the message that your account has not been created, try again after 2-3 days.
• The system will show your student account; please write it down.
• Set your password by following our requirements for a strong password. Do not use special characters or the Scandinavian letters in your password because they cause problems when you try to sign-in outsourced services (for example printing service)!

3. MS account and authentication by phone

With the new university user account, you also have a Microsoft account in format account@student.oulu.fi. Its password is the same as in the university account.

• The MS account is your login name to the most common information systems in the university.
• The MS account uses multi-factor authentication (MFA), which means you practically verify your login by your phone. For that, install the Microsoft Authenticator app on your phone. Get the app from the app store of your device.
• However, do not add your account directly in the app, but do it by a QR code, allowing your account information to move quickly and flawlessly:
  • First, sign-in the Security info of your MS account: https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info
  • In your security info, add Authenticator app as a primary authentication method.
  • Follow the instructions shown by the security info and set the account type Work or School account in the app, and scan the QR code displayed by the security info by the phone.
• If you have not pre-set the authentication method in the security info, you will have to do so at the first time you login. In this case, you will receive a notification More information required / Lisätietoja tarvitaan and you will be directed to set the authentication method for your MS account.
• More information about authentication options: Multi-factor authentication MFA
• Instructions for sign-in: Sign in systems with the university user account

The password of the university’s user account must be changed at least once a year. You get the reminder to your e-mail before the expiration.

NOTE! Please remember to be careful for scam messages: change your password only in the university's Passwd service: https://account.oulu.fi/passwd!

If you don’t know/remember the account name or the password (for example: new account, forgotten account name, forgotten password, expired password), you have to identify through Suomi.fi e-Identifcation:

• Usually online banking account is used for e-Identification, but it is possible with different identification tokens too. Read more: https://www.suomi.fi/instructions-and-support/information-on-eidentifica...
• If you know your account and remember your password, you can change the password without Suomi.fi e-Identification.
• If you cannot use Suomi.fi e-Identification and you don’t know your password, please contact Campus ICT.
• When you do not know both your account and its password, you have to identify through Suomi.fi e-Identification:
• Usually in order to verify your identity, you need both a Finnish personal identification code and your personal online banking account for one of these banks: Aktia | Danske Bank | Handelsbanken | Nordea | Oma Säästöpankki | Osuuspankki | POP Pankki | S-Pankki | Säästöpankki | Ålandsbanken
• E-identification is possible with different identification tokens too. Read more: https://www.suomi.fi/instructions-and-support/information-on-eidentifica...
• If you cannot use Suomi.fi e-Identification and you don’t know your password, please visit Campus ICT service point.

When setting a new password, do not use special characters or the Scandinavian letters in your password! Passwd service accepts those, but they cause problems when signing in some other services.

• Read Requirements for a strong password (ict.oulu.fi)

The username has different spellings depending on the service. However, it's always the same user account, so its password is the same.

Short username:

Basic account is your short username. There are eight (8) characters in the account name and it has been automatically generated on the basis of your name and the beginning year of of your studies. If in the name the å, ä or ö letters happen to be, they are changed in the account name into the letters a or o. It is a basic form of your account and the instructions it is referred to with the word account. Always write it with lower-case letters.

• Use this basic form when logging in the university’s remote desktops, workstations, vendor's laptops or to the information systems where Shibboleth or Haka authentication is in use (e.g. the electronic examination system Exam).

Long username:

Your user account includes a Microsoft organization account which is also referred to as MS account, M365 or O365 username. It is the long form of your account, consisting of a basic account and an organization ID.

• account@student.oulu.fi: Use this long form to when logging into most university information systems, Microsoft 365 Education services and the wireless Eduroam network.
• You verify your login to information systems on your phone. Read more: Multi-factor authenticator MFA (UO) and Sign in systems with the university user account (UO)
• N.B. If you don't have the university's MS account, you apparently haven't enabled the M365 service yet. This enabling was needed for the user accounts created before August 2019. Read more.

Print service username:

The print service is an external service where the username is the intermediate format of the previous ones.

• account@student: Enter your account in this form when logging in Canon printing devices or in a webstore to buy printing quota.

Examples:

See examples and layouts of different login windows: Forms of the student account (ict.oulu.fi).

You get a message about termination beforehand to your email address.

In case you:

• have finished your studies or
• discontinue your student status or
• are not registered as a present student

the right of using university information systems ends, this means that your account will be closed.

Account termination also includes your email address. The email folders and other files are automatically removed within certain time from the O365 service.

The account will be closed automatically by the system and it can not be continued by hand.

If you are part of university staff, account will remain active. In that case, you will have two user accounts with separate O365 services and storage facilities. Read more: Staff user account and email address (ict.oulu.fi).

MFA is in use for all the university user accounts. The main purpose of it is to prevent the abuses of the user accounts. In practice MFA means that you verify, in other words approve your sign-ins on the phone, which has been connected with MFA. Because your phone is needed for the verification, no external quarter is able to abuse your user account.

Phone verifying:

The phone verifying will be required when logging with the university’s MS account outside the campus network without VPN connection.

In order for authentication to work as desired, the security info of your MS account must include information on which device or phone number the verification request will be sent to.

Use this link to get to your security info: https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info.

• Your sign-in name is in form: account@student.oulu.fi. It is your MS account (Microsoft account) and the university's O365 account (Office 365 Education account).

"More information required":

If your MS account does not have the necessary information for MFA, you will be guided with the notification More information required / Lisätietoja tarvitaan to select and set your primary authentication method and also set an alternative method, as well as save other necessary information in your MS account security info.

Keep the security info up to date:

Always check and update your security info before your phone or its number changes, or when you need to reinstall the Authenticator app. This will ensure that the verification requests come to the right number or the right Authenticator application.

Reset the phone number:

However, if the security info has an inactive telephone number and you cannot access the security info any more, reset the phone number using this link: https://account.oulu.fi/mfa. In that service, the identification is done in Suomi.fi e-Identification service.

More information:

More information about MFA and the authentication methods on the instruction page: Multi-factor authenticator MFA (ict.oulu.fi).