Change in the alumni email service!

There will be changes to the UT alumni email services in 2026.

Do you use your @alumnus.utwente.nl email address? If so, it is important to know that the full mailbox service will be discontinued as of 1 October 2026. Instead, email forwarding will be offered.

Why this change?
Our alumni database shows that most alumni can only be reached via a Gmail account or another personal email account. As a result, there is little need for our alumni email services. Specifically, only 600 of the 66,000 alumni use an alumni email account. Most likely, most of them use it in addition to another personal email account.

In addition, 11,000 of the 66,000 alumni have set up email forwarding. They do use their alumni email address, but not the alumni email account: messages are automatically forwarded to a private email account.

Managing a full alumni email infrastructure—which is, moreover, completely separate from UT systems—is becoming increasingly costly due to rising storage costs as well as cybersecurity risks. The costs are no longer proportional to usage. That is why we have decided to phase out the alumni email accounts and offer email forwarding exclusively. This will allow alumni to continue using their lifelong email address.

What will change?
Email account storage will no longer be supported.

• New graduates (from 10 February 2026): will receive email forwarding instead of a full mailbox service.
• Current alumni (from 1 October 2026): their full mailbox will be converted to email forwarding only.

What does this mean for you?
You can continue to use your @alumnus.utwente.nl email address. Messages sent to this address will be automatically forwarded to a personal email address of your choice, instead of being stored in a separate alumni mailbox.
If you have already activated email forwarding, no further action is required.

Next steps
Alumni with full email service can refer to this guide for detailed instructions on setting up email forwarding to their preferred address.

Important
Are you currently not receiving emails from the Alumni Office at your personal email address? If so, please update your contact details via the address change form.

If you have any questions, please contact the Alumni Office.

// Note that ITC alumni use a separate email system and are not affected by these changes //