Short answer first. At 22 of the 24 universities below you may record a lecture only once the person teaching it has said yes. Manchester says no to student recording entirely. Edinburgh says yes without being asked. Everywhere else it is one email, sent before the class rather than after it. The disability route is a separate door, and at several universities it removes the need to ask the lecturer at all.
This page exists because the answer is published, but it is published in 24 different places, in policy PDFs, library guides, disability service pages and academic integrity handbooks. Each row below names the rule, the separate route for a disability adjustment where the university publishes one, and the document it came from. Every link goes to the university's own page, not to a summary of it.
How to read the table
Three columns matter, and they answer different questions.
Can you record is the default for a student with no adjustment in place. Disability route is the separate door, which at most universities skips the individual lecturer entirely. Source is the document, so you can check whether it has changed since this page was written.
A university that is not listed has not been checked, not cleared. Policies are revised between academic years, and several of the documents here carry 2026 or 2026/27 dates, so read the source before you rely on a row.
The 24 policies
| University | Country | Can you record | Disability route | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edinburgh | UK | Yes, audio, for personal learning | Covered by the same policy | Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy |
| King's College London | UK | Audio only, lecturer's prior permission | Not stated separately | Digital Education Policy |
| UCL | UK | Not ordinarily permitted by default | Not stated separately | Education Media Recording Policy |
| Bristol | UK | Consent of the lecturer and others present | Not stated separately | Live Streaming and Recording policy |
| Manchester | UK | No, not for any taught session | University records sessions itself | Recording of Taught Sessions |
| Toronto | Canada | Instructor's written consent | Accessibility Services | Academic integrity office |
| UBC | Canada | Follow the syllabus; instructor decides | Centre for Accessibility | Ten things students should know |
| McGill | Canada | Consent from each course instructor | Student Accessibility and Achievement | Audio recording responsibilities |
| Concordia | Canada | Prior written permission | Access Centre accommodations | Policy PRVPA-2 |
| Queen's (Rehab Therapy) | Canada | Prior explicit written permission | Named in the policy | School policy, rev. Sept 2021 |
| Calgary | Canada | Instructor's permission, unless it is an accessibility requirement | Student Accessibility Services | Recordings in learning environments |
| Waterloo | Canada | At the instructor's discretion | AccessAbility Services | Academic integrity office |
| Dalhousie | Canada | Check with the instructor, AI note-takers included | Student Accessibility Centre | Library copyright guide |
| Trinity | Ireland | Express consent of the lecturer | Written into your LENS report | disAbility Service |
| University of Galway | Ireland | Written request, at the academic's discretion | Does not need to ask academics | QA202 |
| UCC | Ireland | Staff member's discretion, ask in advance | Disability Support Service | Recording policy |
| DCU | Ireland | Ask the lecturer | DLSS provides the device | Recording lectures policy |
| TUS | Ireland | Through the Disability Service only | Audio only, on a TUS device | Policy 2023 to 2028 |
| UCD | Ireland | Through a needs assessment | Audio and lectures only, not tutorials | In-class supports |
| Queensland | Australia | Course Coordinator's permission | Student Accessibility | Recording of Teaching Procedure |
| Melbourne | Australia | Staff member, everyone identifiable, and the dean | Student Equity and Disability Support | Student Conduct Policy 4.4(e) |
| ANU | Australia | Presenter's express written permission | Accessibility Service | Recording of teaching activities |
| ACU | Australia | Written request stating your purpose | Named in section 8 | Lecture Capture Policy |
| UniSC | Australia | Only through a Learning Access Plan | The plan is the approval | Can I record my class? |
United Kingdom: the widest spread
The five UK policies here cover the whole range, which is unusual for one country.
Manchester's is the flat prohibition. Clause 2.1.1 of the Policy on the Recording of Taught Sessions reads, in full, that students are not permitted to record any taught session. The university records sessions itself and publishes them, which is the trade it is offering.
Edinburgh sits at the opposite end. Its Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy states that a student shall be permitted to make audio recordings of lectures, tutorials and supervision sessions on their own equipment for the sole purpose of their own personal learning. No request, no form. Video is a different matter.
Between them, King's permits audio but not video with the lecturer's prior permission, UCL's default is that recordings are not ordinarily permitted, and Bristol requires the consent of the lecturer and of the other people in the room, which is a materially harder condition to satisfy in a full theatre.
Canada: the instructor decides, province to province
Every Canadian policy collected here lands in the same place by a different route. Toronto's academic integrity office requires the instructor's written consent. Concordia requires prior written permission and has since 2015. Queen's School of Rehabilitation Therapy requires prior and explicit written permission. Waterloo frames it as intellectual property: the lecture belongs to the instructor, so the instructor has discretion.
Two are worth reading in full. UBC points you at the course syllabus first, which means the answer can differ between two courses in the same building. Dalhousie's library guide explicitly extends the requirement to artificial intelligence note-takers, which most policies on this page have not yet addressed.
Ireland: the disability route is the clearest in any country
Irish universities publish the two routes side by side more consistently than anywhere else here, and the gap between them is wide.
The ordinary route is a request to the lecturer: express consent at Trinity, a written request at Galway, staff discretion at UCC, a direct ask at DCU. The adjustment route goes through the disability service and lands somewhere quite different. Galway states that a student recording as a reasonable adjustment does not need to ask individual academics at all. DCU's service meets you first and then provides the device. TUS permits audio only, on a recorder belonging to the Disability Service.
The limits are also published more precisely. UCD's accommodation covers audio and lectures, and its privacy statement says tutorials are not included. TUS does not permit recording of in-class student discussions or presentations at all.
Australia: permission plus everyone in the room
The Australian policies add a condition the others mostly leave implicit, which is the consent of the other people being recorded.
Melbourne's Student Conduct Policy is the strictest formulation on this page: clause 4.4(e) requires the express permission of the supervising staff member, of everyone identifiable in the recording, and of the dean. UQ requires the Course Coordinator's permission and may grant it where recording is academically justifiable. ANU requires the presenter's express written permission. ACU sets out a request that has to state what you plan to do with the file.
UniSC is the one that dispenses with the lecturer entirely: recording is approved where it is documented in your Learning Access Plan, and unauthorised recording of seminars, tutorials and teaching sessions is prohibited outright.
What a yes actually covers
Permission to record is never permission to share, and the second is where the consequences sit.
Galway limits recordings to the personal and private use of the student, with one exception: the file may go to a single person for transcription. UCC restricts a module's recordings to students registered for that module. ACU asks you to undertake not to give the recording to anyone else and to destroy it at the end of the unit. UQ's clause 19 forbids sharing outright.
The pattern holds across all four countries. A recording that stays on your own device is covered by the permission you were given. The same file in a course group chat is a different act, governed by a different clause, and it is the one that produces a misconduct finding.
What to do when there is no policy page
Plenty of universities have not published one, and the absence is not permission.
The workable rule is the same everywhere on this page. Write to the person teaching the course, not to a department office. Send it before the first class you want to record, not after. Say what you want to record, why, and that the file is for your own study. A request in the first week generally covers the term, which turns this into one email rather than twelve.
If the honest reason is that you cannot listen and write at the same time, the disability or accessibility service is the right door instead. That route carries a legal duty behind it that an ordinary request does not, and as the table shows, it frequently removes the need to ask the lecturer at all.
Where Notibo fits
Notibo records a lecture, or takes an audio file you upload, and returns a transcript, structured notes and flashcards with spaced repetition. It also turns PDF, PPTX and DOCX files into notes and flashcards. It transcribes 89 languages and the transcript comes back in the language spoken.
Files are stored in the EU, on Supabase in Frankfurt, and transcription and the AI notes run on US processors under standard contractual clauses.
None of that changes the rule on this page. Recording a lecture needs the permission of the person teaching it, and asking is the first step, not the last one. The country detail sits in recording lectures in the UK, in Canada, in Ireland and in Australia.