IT and Library Services

IT Service Desk

Our IT Service Desk is your first point of contact for all issues, service requests or queries relating to our services and software. Contact us via email or LiveChat for the most efficient service

Telephone

+44 208 331 7555

Support for teaching spaces is always prioritised and is our main focus before 9:00am. Call 7555 from the phone on or near the podium for the fastest response between 8:30am-5:30pm during term time.

In person support is also available during working hours on all our campuses. Find us in the Dreadnought building, Stockwell Street Library, Avery Hill Library, and Medway Drill Hall Library.

The IT Service Desk is closed all day on Sundays

The IT Service Desk is the first point of contact for all issues and queries relating to our services and software. We provide IT support for students, staff, affiliates and visitors.

Please use our online chat or email the IT Service Desk to submit requests as this allows the speediest method of triage. If your query is urgent, please follow up with a phone call so it can be prioritised.

Before sending in your request please check our guidance which is being updated regularly.

Service Updates

Check our Service Status page to see whether the university's systems are all working as expected, or if there is a known outage. Find out more about how we manage our Service Status page here.

Getting started and our services

New Students can find out how to get set up for success before you arrive, and the information you need when you first come on campus. Our new staff and affiliates page has everything you need to get started with your university Staff or Affiliate account.

Once you're set up, you can find out about all our IT and Library services here. Don't forget to stay safe online, here are 6 tips to identify and deal with a phishing message.

Raising a call

Please use our online chat or email the IT Service Desk to submit requests as they are the speediest methods of triage. If your query is urgent please follow up with a phone call so it can be prioritised.

Our ChatBot is available 24/7 and will guide you to help and advice available on our support pages. If your query can't be resolved by the ChatBot you'll be redirected to a member of staff during office hours, or be prompted to email your query to the IT Service Desk where it will be  automatically logged and responded to during our opening hours.

Before you contact us

To help us deal with your call quickly, please provide the following information however you contact us:

  • Your name and username.
  • How you would like us to contact you, i.e. your preferred phone number or via Teams.
  • Full details of the problem including, where appropriate:
    • screenshots or the full details of any error messages you have received.
    • The name of any applications you may be encountering problems with.
    • The UG number of any university supplied hardware that may have a fault.
  • Your location.
  • The number of people the problem is affecting.

What happens next?

Where possible, the IT Service Desk will attempt to resolve your call when you first contact us. We may also ask for more information to help resolve the call. If it is not possible for the IT Service Desk staff to resolve it, the call will be assigned to another team.

  • Campus teams support faculty-specific services, maintain local IT hardware and provide support for your campus, Faculty or Directorate.
  • Specialist teams maintain centrally supported services including email, remote desktops and our university networks, they provide support for their area of expertise.

Please note: All calls are given a Service Desk (SD) reference number which you will see quoted in an acknowledgement email when your call is logged. Please include the reference number in any correspondence about the call.

How long will it take?

The IT Service Desk assigns a priority to your call based on impact and urgency. This helps us prioritise critical calls, such as fixing equipment in lecture theatres. We also set a target date and time by which we expect to resolve the call.

IT Service Status

Check whether the university's systems are all working as expected, or if there is a known outage on our IT Service Status page.

We use the IT Service Status page to notify staff and students of planned system downtime, and to alert you to known issues or outages. Updates will be provided for all university supported IT systems, including:

  • General IT Services; Printing, Microsoft 365, the Portal and the university website.
  • IT Networks; both our wired network services and Eduroam wifi.
  • Staff IT Services; Horizon, Business Objects and Remote Desktop.
  • Student IT Services; Student Union website, student email and calendar.
  • Teaching and Learning; Moodle, Panopto, Turnitin, Extenuating Circumstances, Timetabling and Mentimeter.
  • Library Services; Library Search, LibGuides, electronic databases and journals and GALA.

The IT Service Status page is hosted off-campus and will continue to be updated even if other university systems are unavailable for any reason. The page will normally be updated from 9:00am to 5:00pm between Monday and Friday, excluding Bank Holidays and university closure dates.