Questions and answers concerning IT support

We have a self-service portal where you can activate your user account, update your account information, change your password and create a new password if you have forgotten it.

At our self service user account website portal you may activate your account and/or change your password.

New students at USN will receive their temporary 11-digit number (SO-number) during the first days of orientation and start-up, on campus. International students can therefore not activate their accounts until the temporary 11-digit number (SO-numbers) have been received.

All students at USN are assigned one user name for the university's various IT services.

For any service that requires login, you will be asked for a user name.

Your user name = your student ID number.

New students will receive a student ID number by email as from around August 1^st.

You can find more information about this at my.usn.no.

If you have not enabled your user account you can do so on this website.

Requirements for IT-equipment

Everyone must have their own computer when they study at USN. Here you get information about the minimum requirements and recommendations we have for IT-equipment for our studies and for exams (both school exams, home exams and online studies).

Some study programs use special software, and this may affect the type of computer you need. You must check this with the faculty you are going to study at.

Requirements for digital exam

You must use your own laptop (PC or Mac). Digital exam cannot be completed with tablet, Chromebook or hybrid PC. Also remember to bring a charger and possibly a mouse if you have a school exam. Check that the web camera on your computer is working, you may need this.

Minimum laptop requirements for our studies and exams

Computer requirements
•    PC: Windows 10
•    Mac: OS X 10.10 or later.

o    Note: Some USN studies require Windows operating system. When purchasing Mac, a Windows installation must therefore be established on the computer using Parallels, Oracle Virtualbox, or similar systems that allow both the Windows operating system and the Mac operating system to be installed on the computer at the same time. You must check this with the faculty you are going to study at.

Processor requirements (CPU)
•    Minimum Intel Core i3 processor or equivalent
•    USN recommends: 4 cores (e.g. Intel Core i5, AMD FX-8350 or equivalent)

Memory requirements (RAM)
•    8 GB - Preferably more

Storage requirements
•    256 GB HDD (preferably SSD)

Other minimum requirements
•    Integrated wireless network card (WiFi)
•    Latest version of recommended browsers: Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox
•    Sometimes you may need to take pictures to include in your answer. It is not allowed to use a mobile phone during the exam. You must therefore have a working web camera on your computer.

Minimum requirements for online studies

For online studies, the minimum requirements mentioned earlier in the article also apply, in addition to the following minimum requirements:

Webcam
•    In some studies, an integrated web camera is approved, but we recommend an external camera for better quality and more flexible use.
•    Integrated web camera must be able to deliver images in 640x480 or better resolution.
•    USN recommends: External USB camera with HD resolution.
•    An external web camera is required in subjects that have an oral exam online.

Headset
•    Headset that uses USB for audio with microphone, or combined table microphone and speaker (with echo cancellation).
•    USN recommends: Think about quality when buying a headset.
•    Remember that this will be an important tool for several years to come.

Network speed
•    Minimum requirements: 5 mbps download, 1 mbps upload and 60ms latency.
•    We recommend wired ethernet connection during web conferences.

Employees using computers from USN are already signed in to Teams.
If you are using a private computer or device you can install Teams from Microsoft's download page.

Download Teams for Windows and Mac here

Login to Teams:

For students

• Username: 
  • "studentnumber"@usn.no

For employees

• Username:
  •  "username"@usn.no

All students have free access to the Office 365 cloud service. It includes full access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, 1 TB cloud storage in OneDrive and much more.

Download the client or work in the cloud here.

Login to Office 365:

For students

• Username: 
  • "studentnumber"@usn.no

For employees

• Username:
  •  "username"@usn.no

USN has wireless network on all campuses. It is called Eduroam.

First, connect to the university's guest network, to get access to the Internet on the device on which you want to set up Eduroam.

1. Go to this page to download an Eduroam profile to your device
2. Select the operating system you use
3. Follow the instructions to start the installation file
4. Enter your username@usn.no and password
5. You will then be connected automatically to Eduroam

Do you need help? Contact IT support.

You can find printers on all campuses. You can use them with your student card.

You can print, copy and scan. You can send scanned documents to your own email address.

For more information about printing, see my.usn.no  (requires login)

USN sends you email to the address registered in our systems. You can change this in StudentWeb.

As a student, you also have access to a student email address. You may sometimes be required to use this email address to obtain student discounts on digital products.

The student email address is used for Skype meetings and some e-learning presentations.

Secure digital mail

USN has introduced secure digital mail. This is mail which contains confidential information that may not be emailed, but is sent to your digital mailbox. For students, this will e.g. concern answers to applications concerning special arrangements and diplomas.

• Read more about digital mailbox (Difi Norway)
• Download digital mailbox (norge.no)

If you do not have a digital mailbox, the Post department will print the document and send it by ordinary post. You will receive a response much later than if you had a digital mailbox.

Have you forgotten your password to your min.usn account?

We have a self-service portal where you can create a new password.