Starting from 16th October 2025, ITS will transition all active Graduate.hku.hk Linux email accounts to the new Microsoft Exchange Online platform. This initiative aims to enhance the user experience with a standardized and sustainable platform for Graduate email service long-term use.
Background:
The Graduate.hku.hk email service has been operated with a limited 10MB mail quota for over 25 years. Moving forward, the service will be transitioned to Microsoft Exchange online Cloud platform, providing a rich messaging feature with a 2GB mail quota for alumni accounts, thereby improving communication capabilities for alumni users.
Key Benefits:
- Enhanced User Interface: the Microsoft Exchange Online provides an enhanced User interface with native mobile support and calendaring service.
- Enhanced Security: Users can optionally enable Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to increase the security level of the graduate email accounts.
- Increased mail quota: mail quota will be increased from 10MB to 2GB.
How to activate the new Graduate Exchange Online (EXO) email account now?
- Visit HKU Graduate Exchange Online (EXO) account activation website here
- Follow the instruction to enter account information and then click “Submit”
- Once you click “Submit” and your information is verified, your new Graduate MS EXO email account will be accessible after the above-mentioned service transition date.
Is it possible to submit an account activation request after the service transition date?
Yes. You can follow the same procedure to activate your Graduate account AFTER the service transition date.
How to configure mail client to access Graduate Exchange Online (EXO) email?
The mail client configuration guide for Graduate Exchange Online will be soon available here starting from the service transition date.
Important Notes:
- Starting from the migration date mentioned above (expected on October 16, 2025), all the new emails sent to @graduate.hku.hk will be delivered to the new Exchange Online mailbox. The old Graduate system will no longer receive incoming email. The webmail access to the Graduate Linux system is then available by selecting “GRADUATE.HKU.HK (retired)” on HKU Webmail (https://webmail.hku.hk).
- After the activation of your Graduate EXO account and the above-mentioned service transition date (expected on October 16, 2025), you will be able to access the Graduate EXO mailbox on HKU Webmail by choosing “GRADUATE.HKU.HK (Microsoft 365)” email system.
- All the current @graduate.hku.hk email alias and forwarding settings will be propagated to the new Exchange Online mailbox, no matter whether the account activation process is completed before the service transition date or not.
- The existing email messages on original Graduate mailbox will NOT be migrated to the new Microsoft Exchange mailbox. You may forward the valuable messages remaining on the retired Graduate system to your new @graduate.hku.hk EXO mailbox via Webmail.
- Please refer to this website (https://its.hku.hk/services/email-communications/email-and-calendar/) AFTER the above-mentioned service transition date (expected on October 16, 2025) for the user guide to configure the supported mail clients to the HKU Graduate Exchange Online mailbox.
Support & Assistance:
For assistance in activating your new Graduate mailbox on the Microsoft platform, please contact the ITS helpdesk at ithelp@hku.hk.