A self access management system allows users to self-grant access rights to resources. An access policy specifies which users have what levels of access to which resources. In addition to specifying conventional access rights, the access policy specifies that at least one user has self management rights to at least one resource. A request from a user to access a resource to which the user does not have conventional access rights is received. The access policy is consulted, to determine whether the user has self management rights to the resource. If so, it is further determined whether criteria specified by the self management rights for accessing the resource are met. Responsive to the criteria being met, the access policy is updated to grant the user access rights to the resource, according to the terms of the self management rights.