After careful consideration, the University will be transitioning to Microsoft as our primary university-wide platform for collaboration and productivity tools.
Why is UTC making this change?
Moving to a single platform will provide a more reliable and consistent user experience across campuses, continue the University’s commitment to security and privacy, and address the rising costs of maintaining multiple platforms.
Benefits of using Microsoft as the University-wide platform
There are many benefits to having everyone use the same systems…here are just a few:
- Better Spam Protection: The move to Outlook for all faculty, staff, and students will keep UT email out of students’ Gmail spam folders.
- Improved Email Routing: The move to Outlook for all UT campuses reduces the complexity of email routing and the potential for emails being missed due to multiple campus affiliations. UTK and UTM are currently both in the process of migrating all email and storage in their Google tenants to Microsoft 365 as well.
- Access Microsoft Apps Anywhere: Microsoft 365 includes a robust collection of applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive and Outlook, essential for daily operations.
- Advanced Security: Microsoft’s advanced security features, including Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP), enhance our email and data protection.
- Integrated Calendaring: Scheduling appointments will be easier when everyone uses the same system.
- Improved Collaboration: Teams can collaborate more effectively using integrated tools like Teams and SharePoint.
- Consistent User Experience: A unified platform ensures a consistent experience across all devices and applications.
- Simplified IT Management: Managing one platform simplifies IT administration and support.
When can I begin using Microsoft 365 (M365)?
You may begin to use Microsoft 365 at any time for collaboration and office apps (except Outlook) as all UTC faculty, staff, and students are provisioned accounts. Anyone with a @mocs.utc.edu email account will be able to begin using Outlook for email once our technical changes have been completed later this year. To find your Microsoft 365 username, visit MyMocsNet and look for the “Account Info” widget.
When do I have to stop using Google?
- New Accounts: The transition away from Google begins in Fall 2026. Students applying to UTC for Fall 2026 and forward will only be provisioned Microsoft accounts. Notices will be sent to these accounts starting January 2026 as we migrate them from Google to Microsoft.
- Existing Accounts: Students enrolled in the 2025-2026 academic year and existing department accounts will have the option to continue to use Google until we migrate their content for Gmail and Drive in the mocs.utc.edu accounts to Microsoft over the next two years. Migration of content is planned to start in Spring 2026 and will be completed in phases. Student email accounts are retained for one year after leaving UTC before they are expired and deleted.
Project Timeline:
- September 2025 - December 2025: Finalize the technical changes needed for the transition from Google to Microsoft.
- October 2025: Begin notifications to campus of the upcoming change to the UTC Google environment.
- January 2026: Transition Fall 2026 new student accounts over to Microsoft only.
- May 2026: Begin the phased approach to migrating content for existing accounts (enrolled students, employees, departments) to Microsoft.
- August 2026: Students accepted to UTC for Fall 2026 will only have accounts in Microsoft Office.
- August 2028: Complete the transition of moving all Gmail and Drive related activities to Microsoft 365 for all students, employees, and department accounts.
When will my account transition?
We are in the process of developing transition plans for students, employees and departmental accounts. See the articles below for more information: