Common questions for the start of the academic year

To log in, you need your student number with an 's' in front - e.g. s1234567 (without @bournemouth.ac.uk) and a password. 

You will need to create a password. For security reasons, this needs to:   

- Be a minimum of 12 characters long (with no spaces) 

- Be different to your last 12 passwords 

- Include a combination of at least three of the following: 

• Lower case letter 
• Upper case letter 
• A single digit number (0-9) 
• A special character (e.g. ! @ # $ % ^ & * () = - {} [] “ ; ? , /) 
• Please do not use | or : 

We also recommend your password doesn’t contain single words or a recognisable combination of words, letters or numbers or personal details such as your name. 

You will need to reset your password every 365 days. 

To set your password, you need to register for BU’s password reset tool. Once registered you can reset your password by selecting the 'forgotten password' option. For more information please also check the Multi-Factor Authentication and Self-Service Password Reset FAQs.  

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As a current BU student, you can download Office 365 for free, due to the licensing partnership between BU and Microsoft. Office 365 includes all the familiar and full Office applications and offers the ability for you to install them locally on up to five devices and available offline. 
 
Before downloading, you may need to remove previous versions of Office, as errors could occur during installation. If you experience errors, please remove all versions of Office through the ‘Programs and Features’ control panel. 
 
Please note: Office 365 is only free for the duration of your course. Once you have graduated, or if you leave BU early, you will need to purchase a subscription for Office 365 to continue using these services. Please consider this before removing any previous office versions you currently use, as any data stored on other versions will be lost. 
 
How to download Office 365: 
• Head to office.com and log in with your BU username and password
• Click Install Office near the top right-hand corner
• Follow the on-screen instructions until Office is installed. Once downloaded, you can run Office on up to five computers (PC or Mac). 
 
You can also download Microsoft Office for personal devices such as mobile phones and tablets. Just visit the App Store (Apple) or Google Play Store (Android) on your device to download. 

When will my timetable be available and how do I access it? 

BU timetables are starting to be released from Thursday 7 September. Please look in Brightspace for details of when timetables will be available for your faculty, as they are not all released on the same day. You can find your timetable under the 'Useful Links' tab on Brightspace. Please note, if you will be choosing your optional units during induction week, your full timetable will not yet be available.   

You will need to have completed registration and enrolment to view your timetable.

Your timetable will tell you where you need to be for each taught session. 

Room numbers: Our rooms are numbered by building, floor and room number e.g. C114 = Christchurch House, 1st Floor, room 14; EBC302 = Executive Business Centre, 3rd Floor, room 2. 

Buildings are described as follows: 

BGB = Bournemouth Gateway Building (Lansdowne Campus)  

CH = Christchurch House (Talbot Campus) 

DH = Dorset House (Talbot Campus) 

EBC = Executive Business Centre (Lansdowne Campus) 

F = Fusion Building (Talbot Campus)  

PG = Poole Gateway Building (Talbot Campus) 

PH = Poole House (Talbot Campus) 

SC = Student Centre (Talbot Campus) 

SH = Studland House (Lansdowne Campus) 

SMCL = Sir Michael Cobham Library (Talbot Campus) 

TA = Tolpuddle Annexes (Talbot Campus) 

WH = Weymouth House (Talbot Campus) 

BLEND: You may find this in your timetable under the room number. This refers to something you need to do online and not an actual room.  

Campus maps: For more information you can find the campus maps on the website and the getting around campus page for a full list of buildings. 

If you are based at our Yeovil Campus, room numbers start with UG, e.g. UG10. 

If you are based at our Portsmouth Campus, room numbers start with P, e.g. P-Room1a 

You can find the dates for each semester on our academic dates webpage. 

Normally you will receive your first instalment within five days of the start of term, provided you have completed your enrolment and provided the Student Loan Company with the correct information.  

If you have not received funding after the first week of the semester, please contact AskBU. 

As an undergraduate student, you are normally entitled to funding for the standard length of your course plus one extra year. If you need to repeat a year of your course, you can still apply for full-time student finance funding. Do not apply for part-time funding, even if you're taking fewer modules than usual, as you are not eligible for this. 

However, if you repeat a year of your course more than once or you’ve previously studied on a higher education course and received funding in the past, you may have used your extra year of funding already. This means that you will not be entitled to receive a tuition fee loan for your repeat year (unless you have compelling personal circumstances, such as serious illness) and will have to pay your own tuition fee. For more advice, you can contact Student Finance on 0300 100 0607. 

Postgraduate student finance is a fixed award, regardless of how many years of study you undertake. Therefore, you won’t receive any further funding if you extend your course. You can still apply for additional financial support through BU. For more advice, you can contact Student Finance on 0300 100 0031 or contact AskBU. 

Funds are uploaded onto the bursary/scholarship prepaid cards on a monthly basis over nine months, from October to June.  

The credit is uploaded on the first working Monday of each month, but it can take until Wednesday of that week for the funds to show in your account. If you receive your prepaid card after the date that the first instalment is uploaded, you may receive the payment later.   

You can find further information regarding scholarship and bursary eligibility on our Scholarship and bursary web pages. 

To log in to your online bursary/scholarship card account, please visit www.spree-card.com/BUBSPR/Home/Login. When you first receive your card, you will need to go online at the above address to activate it.  

You will also need to notify BU to confirm receipt of the card, before your first payment can be uploaded. To confirm receipt, please log in to MyHub and tick the box to say you've received the card. 

Please note: Bursary/scholarship payments are uploaded on the first working Monday of the month. This means, that if there is a bank holiday on the first Monday of a month, the payment will not be uploaded until the following Monday. 

You can request a letter using the relevant online form. 

If your BRP is being delivered to BU, you will be emailed by [email protected] once we have received and processed it. You will then be invited to book an appointment slot to collect your BRP.  

You will also be able to collect processed BRPs during your face-to-face international document checking session. 

If you are an international student, your enrolment will not be confirmed until you attend BU and have your documents checked at a face-to-face session on or after 18 September 2023. 

You can print your council tax exemption certificate through myHub. Please visit our council tax exemption page for more information. 

To request a replacement ID card (current/returning students) please complete the ID Card Replacement Form.