Over the Easter weekend email for staff and postgraduate research students at the University of Bristol moved to Gmail.

Most staff will start using this new service from this morning, Wednesday 3 April 2013. They join 1,000 staff early adopters and three pilot departments, who have provided very positive feedback on the new service. On 15 April staff and postgraduate research students will also start using Google Calendar.

For the past two years the University has been moving undergraduate students over to Gmail, the well-known email service provided by Google. The service brings benefits such as a huge email quota of 25GB and easy access on mobile devices. Students can also keep their Gmail accounts when they graduate, providing a lifelong link with Bristol.

Nick Skelton, Assistant Director of IT Services said: ‘Google Apps gives us a modern suite of communications tools to meet the needs of staff and students. As the service is provided direct over the Internet it will stay up to date with regular improvements and new features. Google makes it easy for our researchers to collaborate with both their colleagues at Bristol and their partners at other organisations, essential for a research-intensive global university such as Bristol.’

To get started with Gmail please go to www.bristol.ac.uk/email/. It’s pretty easy to get started and full information and FAQs are available on the website. If you do need more assistance please visit the support website or call the Google hotline on x88845 – or look out for the teams of Google Helpers at locations around the University.