The policy document from University Staff Committee may be summarised as follows:
Regular, contract, casual, honorary, guest, visiting, emeritus, and associate staff must be registered in the SAP administration systems in order to obtain a computer account.
The exceptions are agency staff or consultants, where there is an official contract with the University, non-emeritus retirees, and external tutors or examiners who may be authorised by the Head of School/Unit.
All registered students of Newcastle University are entitled to computer accounts, and in addition certain classes of students such as Partners students, students on collaborative programmes authorised by Head of School/Unit and others authorised by the Student Office.
A "role" account can be issued on the authority of the Head of School/Unit. The Head of School/Unit remains responsible for that account but can delegate operational use to one or more other members of staff for business continuity reasons. Examples of role accounts are 'helpdesk' (the ISS Helpdesk Team), 'print' (Robinson Library print services), 'sage.pgc' (SAGE Postgraduate committee), and so on.
A "role" account is the only type of computer account that may be shared by members of staff. For regulatory reasons all other accounts are considered "personal" accounts and may not be shared; third party access is only permitted when specifically authorised by ISS.
If you need further advice please contact the IT Service Desk.