Ellucian Colleague Student Reviews

“Reliable and feature-packed”

Pros

After being around for a long time, this product has continued to improve over the years. It's very stable and includes most of the functionality we need.

Cons

Over the years the product has shifted directions several times with different frameworks which meant we often had to adjust our own approach just to keep up.

“ideal upgrade for campus”

Pros

Ellucian Colleague Student has completely transformed how we operate as an institution. It replaced outdated processes with a much faster, more modern way of working and the difference has been huge for us.

Cons

The biggest challenge was the implementation especially the train the trainer approach. For a smaller institution like ours with limited resources, that model just wasn't very practical.

“Easy to use dashboard”

Pros

Using it feels very simple. The dashboard is easy to move through and tasks are quick to carry out. It works really well as a student database management system. Entering grades is convenient and it can be customized to match specific requirements. It also includes helpful tools like attendance tracking, class list approval, academic profiles and detailed scheduling so it's much easier to manage follow-up in one place. On top of that, the data feels secure.

Cons

Customizing reports can be challenging and some of the capabilities feel limited.

“Crashes at critical moments”

Pros

There really aren't any positives to mention. The product feels sluggish and comes across as if user needs were never considered in the design.

Cons

This software has no real strengths to balance things out. It crashes repeatedly during the most important times for student advising and registration which seriously hurts our institution's ability to operate in a professional way.

“Decent financial aid but weak support”

Pros

The financial aid module does a great job handling what we need whenever it's working properly.

Cons

Since moving to the cloud customer support has really gone downhill and getting updates installed takes an incredibly long time.

“Useful student degree evaluation”

Pros

Student degree evaluation has been especially helpful and honestly my original comment was way too short, lol. There's pretty much everything about Ellucian that I enjoy using.

Cons

Our help guide hasn't been updated for the new version so when I check it to understand what went wrong or why something won't save or update, it can be a hassle. Most of the time though, I'm still able to figure out what I did.

“well-known in higher ed”

Pros

Implementing any ERP system is rarely fast or simple but this package is widely used across higher education so it is very familiar and well recognized in the industry.

Cons

At the same time it shows its age and comes with the usual baggage of an older system and new employees need quite a bit of training before they can use it confidently.

“S.O.S page helps with vouchers”

Pros

I wasn't really part of that process so I can't say with confidence what I liked most. That said the S.O.S page is good and using S.O.S makes it easier to complete journal vouchers.

Cons

Working in the fixed asset module is hard to navigate especially when entering assets like accessories or parts under $5K. It takes too many steps to get those items capitalized and linked to the main asset.

“Wide range of uses”

Pros

At our college it is used for just about everything. I mostly rely on it for budget work and creating purchase requisitions and we also use it to manage employee records. It connects with WebTMA too which lets us pull charges from work orders and bill them back to other departments.

Cons

Only real downside is how restrictive the permissions can be since you need access granted for a lot of different screens.

“Keeps track of employees”

Pros

Keeping track of employees works really well and it makes it simple to see the funds at a glance.

Cons

The page names are pretty confusing and you kind of have to already know what they're called to find where you need to go.

“Connected suite potential”

Pros

Having a connected suite that was supposed to work with most of our existing software was a big plus for us.

Cons

The consultants seemed to disagree with each other which made the whole process more confusing than it needed to be. We also learned that the system didn't actually work with some of our existing software, even though those vendors were listed as compatible on the Ellucian partner site. On top of that a few of our third party tools actually could have worked but we were incorrectly told they wouldn't. By the end of the deployment, the mixed messages and limited understanding from their consultants ended up costing us tens of thousands of extra dollars.

“Powerful reporting with data depth”

Pros

I like that it handles a large amount of information in a variety of ways. The report customization is also really valuable and gives us a lot of flexibility.

Cons

It can feel a bit confusing at times especially because it takes many clicks to get to the information you need.

“Secure student data with clear flow”

Pros

The end user side has a well organized visual layout and it's clearly built with student data protection in mind.

Cons

Getting used to this system takes effort because it isn't very user friendly especially for people moving from the companys older product which looked and worked very differently. The support resources on the website also fall short unless you're part of the paid implementation team.

“A powerful student data suite”

Pros

It's a really strong suite for storing and processing information and it handles those core tasks well.

Cons

The wording used for navigation is unusual and that makes it harder for new users to find their way around.

“Helpful reports but rough setup”

Pros

It has very strong reporting, connects well with both Eventbrite and Salesforce and can do a lot to simplify a school's enrollment process.

Cons

This software is not easy to set up which is frustrating to put it mildly. Also support is hard to rely on because the team often does not seem to fully understand the product and tailoring it for a community college setup is also a challenge.

“Better navigation with tricky integrations”

Pros

Recent updates have made the platform much more user-friendly and a lot simpler to navigate.

Cons

Connecting it with other products can still be pretty glitchy at times. Also the integration process really takes someone with deep knowledge to handle it well. So if you have that expertise, it works out fine. If you don't expect to spend extra money getting it set up properly.

“Clean interface and great support”

Pros

Updates have really improved the product's look and feel. Also it is easier to use now and is also simpler to support especially since the admin side no longer requires Java.

Cons

Keeping up with the number of Financial Aid releases is difficult. On top of that applying them means we have to temporarily take our Banner Admin pages offline. I feel like it would be much better if those Financial Aid releases were separated so they could be installed without bringing all of Banner down.

“Complete ERP suite”

Pros

The integration across the different modules works really well and it offers a complete ERP suite in one solution.

Cons

Student module is clearly its strongest area while the finance module doesn't feel nearly as capable.

“Keeps us compliant”

Pros

One thing this product does really well is help keep policies compliant by letting financial information move smoothly across our company.

Cons

Honestly I love using this product and don't really have any complaints about it.

“Valuable for automating financial aid processing”

Pros

Across both my previous university and my current one, it has been the system I've relied on while working in financial aid. It's the only platform I've used so I can't really compare it to anything else. Even so, it has been very valuable for automating financial aid processing. I've worked with this program for more than 7 years. It keeps all student and employee information in one place and we're able to manage the necessary processing directly in Banner. From both a financial and academic standpoint, it has really served as a one-stop shop for information for our large student population. Banner 9 also made the screens more approachable for newer users because it reduced the dependence on acronyms although Banner 8 was still the most efficient version I've worked in.

Cons

One issue with Banner 9 is the lag when moving between screens and that still hasn't really improved. Since it's web-based, it has noticeably slowed down our processing. There are also glitches that usually get fixed quickly but this newer version seems to come with more problems than we ever had when we were using Banner 8.