Update a Student's Institution Email Address

Student accounts are usually pre-created in Handshake by the school using the student’s institution-provided email address. Students cannot delete or change this institution email address themselves in Handshake

If a student wants Handshake notifications and marketing emails sent to a different address, they can change their primary email instead. 

For step-by-step instructions from the student perspective, refer to Update Your Primary Email Address in Handshake.

For students who need their institution email address changed, Career Services staff can update it in two ways:

• Via Importer
• Manually in Handshake
  • Example Emails

Via Importer

To change a student’s institution email via Importer:

1. Update the preferred institution email address in your existing student sync file.
2. Upload the updated file through Importer. For file requirements and required fields, refer to:
   Importing Student Data

Additional notes:

• If your school uses an automated sync, make sure the new email address is also updated in the source file that feeds the sync.
• You cannot change a student’s email address to one that belongs to a different institution (another .edu domain).
• For guidance on updating graduating students’ email addresses, refer to:
   Importer: Updating Graduating Students to Alumni

Manually in Handshake

1. Confirm if the student is in your student sync file

You can check this in either of these ways:

• Review your current student sync file, or
• Open the student’s profile in Handshake and go to the Account tab.

In the Account tab:

• If a white Change Institution Email button is displayed to the right of the institution email, the account is excluded from the importer sync.
• If the Change Institution Email button does not appear, the account is being synced via Importer.

• If the student is not included in your student sync, continue to step 2.
• If you want to exclude this student from future syncs so you can update their institution email manually:
  1. Scroll to the bottom of the Account tab.
  2. Select Exclude from Automatic Syncs.
  3. Click the green Update User button in the lower-right corner to save.
  4. Then continue to step 2.
• If you later want this student’s profile to update through the automatic sync again, uncheck Exclude from Automatic Syncs, then click Update User to save.

2. Start the institution email change. Click the white Change Institution Email button on the Account tab.

3. Submit the new institution email.  Enter the new email address in the New Email field, then click the blue Submit Request button.

If you receive the error “You do not have the permissions to make changes to this user's email.”, the student has another account type connected (for example, an employer account). In that case, let us know you'd like the email change be initiated. 

After the request is processed, a banner appears on the profile:

“Please check your new email address for your email confirmation link and code.”

What the student receives

The student will receive two emails and must follow the instructions in the second email to complete the change.

1) Request confirmation email (sent to the current email address)

Subject and body will be similar to:

Hello [NAME],
Your account email address has been requested to change to [NEW EMAIL].

If you or someone you authorized (for example, your school) requested this, please follow the directions emailed to [NEW EMAIL].

If you do not recognize this request, please contact [HANDSHAKE SUPPORT LINK] immediately.

2) Instructions to complete the change (sent to the new email address)

Subject and body will be similar to:

Hello [NAME],
We received a request to change your email address. If you requested this change, please click the link below and paste the email code in the form to continue.

Please note: in order to complete this change you will first need to log in with your original email address and password. 

Your email verification code is [CODE]

[CHANGE EMAIL BUTTON]

When the student clicks the Change Email button, they are prompted to enter:

• Email Verification Code
• Password / Confirm Password

Once submitted successfully, the institution email on the student’s Handshake account is updated.