ℹ️Change or recover your University password online here
⚡Think your University password or accounts have been compromised please contact the Helpdesk immediately.
⚡You should never share your password with anyone
⚡No one from the University will ever ask for your password, so if someone does, it’s a scam
- Choosing a password
- Password safety points
- Is writing down passwords safe?
- Password - changing or resetting
- Eduroam WI-FI: Update your password to stay connected
- Multifactor authentication (MFA)
- Mobile apps
- Troubleshooting
- MS Teams not working
- VPN connection issue
Choosing a password
Selecting a new password is a difficult balance between being ultra-secure and having something that you can remember easily. There are more things that you shouldn't do when choosing a password than recommendations of what you should do.
- The password is case-sensitive.
- Your password must be between 12 and 256 characters.
- We strongly recommend you use a personal 'passphrase' as a password as this is a good way to create a strong password that can be easily remembered but difficult to crack.
- The longer the phrase the better.
- Uppercase, lowercase, numeric and special characters (except '£' and '€') are allowed and encouraged.
Password safety points
- Do not use your username in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc).
- Do not use predictable passwords (such as dates, family names, and pet names).
- Do not use any other personal information (such as licence plate numbers, telephone numbers, ID numbers, or part of your address)
- Do not use the most common passwords that criminals can easily guess (like 'passw0rd').
- Do not use your University of Hertfordshire password for non-University systems or accounts
- Do not re-use the same password across important accounts (apart from UH systems which are part of single-sign-on). If one of your passwords is stolen, you don’t want the criminal to also get access to (for example) your banking account.
- Do not use a pattern of letters on your keyboard (such as 123456 or qwerty).
- Do not use numbers to represent letters (such as zero for o, 3 for E, etc).
- Do not simply tack a sequential number on the end or in the middle of your password.
- Do not use all numbers.
Password suggestions
- To create a memorable password that's also hard for someone else to guess, you can combine three random words to create a single password.
- Use a password with mixed-case letters. Not just a capitalised word, but put some uppercase letters in the middle somewhere.
- Use more than the minimum 12 characters.
- Try to select a password that you can type quickly, without having to look at the keyboard. This makes it harder for someone to steal your password by looking over your shoulders.
- Look for unusual ways of shortening and combining two or more words
- Misspell words.
Is writing down passwords safe?
Ideally, you should avoid writing your password down to maintain security. However, if it's absolutely necessary, we recommend taking extra precautions to ensure it remains secure.
If you do write it down, do not store it on your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Keep it on a piece of paper, not near your computer, and ensure that you do not include any other information which might identify your username or account. If possible, do not write down the password itself, instead, write down a cryptic clue to help you to remember what it is.
Passwords - changing or resetting
- Allow some time for your new password to update across all University systems. Read our password guidance above for help and guidance on choosing a strong password.
- When changing your password, enter only your username — don't use username@herts.ac.uk
- You can change or reset your University password here
- Make sure your contact details are up to date in the Student Record system so password verification messages go to the right place.
- Once you've changed your passeword, don't forget to update to update your eduroam Wi-Fi on all your devices as eduroam stores your old password on your device and won’t update automatically when you change your UH password. See guidance below.
Eduroam Wi‑Fi: Update your password to stay connected
How to Stop Eduroam From Locking You Out After a Password Change
- eduroam stores your old password on your device and won’t update automatically when you change your UH password.
- If your device keeps trying to connect with the old password, it can lock your UH account.
What to do before changing your password
- Disconnect eduroam on all your devices first.
- Switch to another connection (mobile data, LRC PC, wired connection in halls, or temporary UH Wi‑Fi).
What to do after changing your password
- On each device, go to Get Connected.
- Follow the steps to forget/uninstall eduroam and then reinstall it with your new password.
- Make sure you do this on every device that uses eduroam.
Need help?
- Contact the Helpdesk if you need support reinstalling eduroam.
- More info: ask.herts.ac.uk/set-up-eduroam-wireless#Wi-Fi
Multifactor authentication (MFA)
What is MFA and why you need it
Multifactor Authentication (MFA) adds extra protection to your online accounts by asking for a second step to confirm it’s really you — even if someone knows your password.
This second step might be:
- a push notification in an app on your phone
- a code by text message
- a phone call
You’ve probably used MFA before with online banking or other apps.
MFA at the University of Hertfordshire
- MFA is required for all staff and student accounts.
- Students: Visit ask.herts.ac.uk/multifactor-authentication-mfa for FAQs and help managing your MFA devices.
- PGR students: Check the MFA guidance on HertsHub.
Stay safe
- Always check that any messages or instructions you receive are genuine before acting.
- If we spot anything suspicious on your account, we may reset your password to protect you.
- If you don’t have MFA set up, your account will be disabled until you contact the Helpdesk.
Need to change your password?
You can update it anytime at pss.herts.ac.uk.
Mobile apps
- UH Mobile apps (e.g. HertsMobile or MS Teams) sometimes take a little longer to pick up the change in your password.
- The apps on your device will (at some point) stop working as they no longer recognise your old password.
- Some apps will simply request that you sign back in using your UH username and your new password.
- You may need to uninstall and reinstall other apps.
- You can try logging out and back in again (or uninstalling and reinstalling) to force the change through more quickly
Troubleshooting
- Be patient, it may take a little while for all systems to synchronise with the new password.
- Try logging out and then back into your systems.
- Log out of your computer, shut down, and restart. You are prompted to enter a password for Outlook 365, a box appears for a short time and then disappears. It's now saying that your Office account has been deactivated
- Go to your Windows PC start menu (bottom left-hand corner)
- Select Settings (the cog symbol)
- Select 'Accounts'
- Select 'Access work or school'
- Select your UH account for O365 and then 'Disconnect'
- Once disconnected reopen an Office app and try signing in
MS Teams not working
- Sign out of Teams (click on your picture/initials in the top-right hand corner and ‘sign out’) then sign back in.
- MS Teams is part of O365, so make sure you are signed into O365 with your new password. If not sign out of all O365 apps (Outlook, OneDrive, etc) and sign back in.
- If necessary uninstall and reinstall the Teams desktop version.
- If the desktop version is still not working try using the web version of Teams until the issue is resolved.
VPN connection issue
- See if you can sign in with your old password.
- Log out of the VPN and back in again; the VPN should then require your new password.
- Lastly try reinstalling the VPN.
If you think your University password or accounts have been compromised please contact the Helpdesk immediately.