Changes of Name and Personal Details

• If you wish to change your name for any reason (either your 'Legal Name' or your 'Preferred Name'), please see the 'Change of Name' guidance section below.
• If your date of birth is displaying incorrectly, please contact the Student Records team (student.records@imperial.ac.uk).
• You will need official documentation showing your correct full date of birth (e.g. passport, birth certificate). Please note, we do not accept driving licences as a form of ID.

• Please keep your Permanent Home, Term-Time and Emergency Contact addresses up to date in the My Imperial student portal
• Your Degree Certificate address should be updated in your final year
• On confirmation of your results, the Registry will notify you of a deadline for updating this address

• You will be asked to provide details of an emergency contact for Imperial to use if there is a concern about protecting your life or the life of others
• You will be asked to provide consent on an opt-in basis that gives Imperial permission to also use your emergency contact details if we have serious concerns about your wellbeing
• You should nominate a responsible adult of your choice; this could be a parent, legal guardian or spouse but it does not have to be. Please consider how the person you nominate would be able to support you in the event of an emergency, or where serious concerns are raised about your wellbeing
• You should inform your given contact that you will share their contact details with Imperial for emergency purposes
• If you can’t provide details of an emergency contact you should raise this with your Department Senior Tutor
• Careful consideration will be taken before using your emergency contact details. In event of a wellbeing concern, this would normally be your Faculty Senior Tutor and Student Services
• We will discuss with you our intention to approach your contact unless it is not possible or would cause critical delay

To change your 'Legal Name' at Imperial, you need to have legally changed your name in your life also. Examples of this may be through marriage, or through changing your name with a Deed Poll document. You then need to provide evidence of this legal name change to the Student Records team, who will update your Student Record accordingly.

Examples of evidence that the Student Records team can accept are:

• A passport
• Birth certificate
• Marriage certificate
• Change of Name Deed/Deed Poll

Please note, we do not accept driving licences as a form of ID.

Your degree will be awarded in your full legal name as shown in university records at the point of award conferral.

No changes can be made to a student's name after graduation unless the name change is related to gender re-assignment, in which case Imperial will need proof of name change such as statutory declaration of name change or Deed Poll. When this is done, the new certificate will be provided free of charge. For more information and to request this, please see guidance here.

Transgender students can find Imperial’s policy and guidance on supporting Trans and Non-Binary students here.

Yes, you can. Please get in touch with Student Records who will be able to update this for you. You will need to provide your 'Marriage Certificate' of evidence of the name change.

Whenever you update your Legal or Preferred Name via My Imperial or through contacting Student Records, it is always recommended to contact your department also to keep them informed.

If your name is displaying incorrectly – for example, if it is misspelled or if your first name and last name are the wrong way round, please get in touch with Student Records who will be able to investigate. You will need to provide evidence of your name in its correct spelling/format for this to be corrected. 

Examples of evidence that the Student Records team can accept are:

• A passport
• Birth certificate
• Marriage certificate
• Change of Name Deed/Deed Poll

Please note, we do not accept driving licences as a form of ID.

If your 'Preferred Name' is misspelt, you can update this yourself on 'My Imperial' – but in order for this to be corrected across the University (for example, on systems, on your ID card, or within your email address or username) please follow the steps outlined below in this guidance.

If you have not legally changed your name, you cannot change your Legal Name with the University, but you can change your Preferred Name yourself using My Imperial.

Whenever you update your 'Legal' or 'Preferred Name' via 'My Imperial' or through contacting Student Records, it is always recommended to contact your department also to keep them informed.

Changing your Preferred Name on ‘My Imperial’ does not over-write your existing Legal Name – to do this, you need to formally change your Legal Name with Student Records.

Changing your Preferred Name (or Preferred Title, or Gender) adds a new field to your Student Record (called Preferred Name/Title/Gender) in addition to the existing data. Some internal systems (such as Blackboard, the Library, Security) will update accordingly, as they use the Preferred Name field where this is available – but we understand that the University is very large with many departments, and therefore there may be devolved systems that are not connected and hence won’t update.

If you would like your Preferred Name to show on a system or platform that does not show it following updating it in ‘My Imperial’, please contact Student Systems and we will follow this up on your behalf.

Please note that changing your Preferred Name on ‘My Imperial’ does not automatically generate a new email address that will align with this name. For more information on getting a new email address, please see the next item below called 'I want to change my email address following a name change'.

Yes. You can go to the ID card office and specifically ask for a new one with your Preferred Name.

You can also update your picture on your ID card where needed. If this is required, there are some options:

• On request, Student Systems can switch back on the tile in 'My Imperial' that will allow you to upload a new photo. You will then need to attend the ID card office to request that a new card is printed.
• Alternatively, students may visit the ID card office and ask for a new photo to be taken, and a new card printed.
  1. If students do not feel comfortable explaining to the ID card office why they need a new card or new photo, please reach out to Student Systems and we can help to facilitate this for them through helping with ID card photo upload and liaising with the ID card office directly.

No, ID cards that are required due to a change in name or photo due to a gender change do not incur a charge.

However, if students request new cards and do not explain the reason why, they may be charged £10.

If students explain that they need a new card due to the above reasons (or Student Systems can explain this on the student’s behalf), this charge will be waived.

Student email addresses are generated using a student’s 'Preferred Name' in the system at the time of creation when a student joins the University. If no 'Preferred Name' was specified by the student, the email address is made with the 'Legal Name' at time of creation instead.

If you want to change your email address following a name change, please get in touch with Student Systems after updating your 'Preferred Name' on 'My Imperial'. They will be able to get a new email address created for you that aligns correctly with your 'Preferred Name'.

You will then have two options regarding what happens to your original email address.

Option 1:

 Your previous email address will still exist as an alias of your new email  address and will therefore still be searchable within the address book in Office 365 (Outlook, Microsoft Teams, etc).

• This approach means that any emails that are sent to your previous email address are simultaneously received in your new inbox also. This option can be useful if students still wish to be contacted by people who only know their previous email address.
• Please note that all emails will be sent from your new email address and your new 'Preferred Name'.

Option 2:   

Your previous email address will be deleted entirely. It will not be searchable within Office 365.

• This approach means that any emails that are sent to your previous email address will receive an automated reply informing them that the email was not delivered, and the email will not appear in your new inbox.
• Therefore, if students are choosing this option, it is wise to think of people/accounts/services that you may need to reach out to update with your new email address.

Whenever you update your email address due to a name change, it is always recommended to contact your department also to keep them informed.

At Imperial, we have usernames to access certain systems that are comprised generally of our first initial and surname. For example, John Smith may have jsmith3 depending on how many users with a J Smith name are at the University.

As the username is derived from a user’s actual name, it is possible to request to change your University username following a name change. This said, if a username is changed this cuts all links to the previous profile.

Because of this, as a username is not generally publicly seen, many users choose to retain their previous username when changing email addresses and Preferred Names so that they retain paid subscriptions and do not encounter any issues with systems (such as paid for memberships) recognising their username. 

We can change a username on request to more accurately reflect the revised profile if the user would like this to happen, please just be aware that this will break the chain of their profile and any connected services.

Please get in touch with Student Systems immediately – this is a serious issue that we will deal with urgently.

Where possible, all of the different systems that the University uses should use the student’s 'Preferred Name' where this is available. On some platforms, this is not possible (for example, the HR Casual Worker platform or anything involving CAS or Immigration).

That said, class registers should always use a student’s 'Preferred Name' when this is available. If it doesn’t, this could be because the registers are being generated from an outdated platform.

Please get in touch with Student Systems immediately if this happens – this is a serious issue that we will deal with urgently.

ID cards are printed using the 'Preferred Name' that is in the system at the time of printing. If no 'Preferred Name' is available, the ID card will have your 'Legal Name'.

If you want your 'Legal Name' to display on your ID card instead of your 'Preferred Name', you will first need to update your 'Preferred Name' to be the same as your 'Legal Name' to have this pull through on the ID card system. You will then be able to request a new card from the ID office.