Top Free Higher Education Student Information Systems
Check out our list of free Higher Education Student Information Systems. Products featured on this list are the ones that offer a free trial version. As with most free versions, there are limitations, typically time or features.
If you'd like to see more products and to evaluate additional feature options, compare all Higher Education Student Information Systems to ensure you get the right product.
Open-School is a versatile and affordable School/College administration software used by thousands of educational institutions worldwide for administration & management activities. We are more feature rich than an MIS (managment information system) but less complicated than an ERP.
Simple tools for online class registration to get the job done quickly, saving time and money! We know you’re busy, so we’ve spent countless hours building simple, but powerful tools to help programs like yours to connect with their students. Register more students and save a mountain of time. Our Impossibly Simple class registration and marketing software includes rosters, waitlists, credit card processing, class communication tools and customized forms. Process memberships, payment plans and
Sycamore School is a 100% cloud-based SIS. Our 21st century pricing means you get one universal system, for one low price. No modules or add-ons. The most comprehensive system on the market, Sycamore has over 300 integrated features: a robust online admissions portal, integrated payment processing and a built in LMS. Our support response time is measured in minutes not hours or days. We are a great solution for you to worry about education and not have to worry about data management among multi
Open source campus management
Academia ERP is a complete enterprise solution for higher ed institutions viz. colleges & universities looking to automate their Academic and Administrative processes. This comprehensive suite streamlines complete student lifecycle from Enquiry to Graduation as well as administrative processes such as Inventory, Hostel, Library, Human Resources etc. The product is built on cutting-edge Java technology and is robust & scalable.
Fedena is an all-in-one college and school management software which is used by thousands of educational institutions worldwide for all administration, management and learning related activities.. It has everything your institution will ever need. Gradebook, transport, examination, bulk data management, students progress tracking, reports, parent-teacher collaboration, attendance, fee management and 50+ feature-rich modules. Automate everything, generate insightful reports, make better decisions
Classter is a global pioneer in the field of Education Technology, offering an all-in-one Cloud-based SaaS that bundles: Student Information System (SIS), School Management System (SMS) & a Learning Management System (LMS). The platform offers an end-to-end and modular information management solution that can be used by any educational institution. Fully integrated with Office 365, Google G-Suite and other 3rd party systems for creating a fully functional synchronous and asynchronous learnin
Use Data Management and Real-Time Collaboration for Adaptive Learning in the Classroom We’ve interviewed teachers across the country, and we’ve heard a common story: that truly advanced and effective digital learning solutions are not for general education. “They cost too much” “They intimidate teachers” “They don’t fit the needs of my school or my students” Here’s the reality: No matter if you’re teaching in a flagship university or a small K-12 school system, student and learning managemen
A suite of cloud-based applications offering a wide range resources for education, employability and employment to higher education students.
Top 9 Free Higher Education Student Information Systems in 2021
- Open-School
- CourseStorm
- Sycamore Campus
- A1 Academia
- Academia ERP
- Fedena
- Classter
- SOFOS
- uLektz
Learn More About Higher Education Student Information Systems
What are Higher Education Student Information Systems?
A student information system (SIS) manages a wide range of tasks related to the student learning experience, including enrolling students in courses, building an academic schedule, posting student grades, and generating transcripts. For educators tasked with managing these vast data sets for institutes of higher learning, whether it is a small college or a large university, enabling the efficient storage and sharing of student data is key.
Colleges and universities generally use SIS products that are specific to higher education use cases versus SIS products designed for primary and secondary schools, which have different functions. K-12 student information systems may offer similar core features as higher education systems, such as managing student records, but often lack functionality that is important for operating colleges, universities, and professional schools. Higher education SIS products have robust modules for admissions, course catalogs, academic advising, and student life. They focus more on the student experience than K-12 products, which often center more around parent engagement. Flexibility is also paramount, as each institution will want to configure the technology to meet the specific needs of their campus.
SIS has long been important for storing data. As cloud-based product suites have become prominent in the education market, they now sit in the middle of an interconnected software ecosystem linking it to other software solutions that manage an institution’s finances, human resources, financial aid, alumni relations, and other departments.
Key Benefits of Higher Education Student Information Systems
- Increase administrative efficiency through automation
- Facilitate stronger digital connections with students, improving engagement
- Minimize inaccurate or duplicate data
- Generate new insights from data analytics
Why Use Higher Education Student Information Systems?
Automate administrative processes — A well-designed SIS saves educators time through automating routine processes. These platforms manage the process of accepting and reviewing applications through a student enrolling in courses. SIS software automatically generates class schedules, based on student degree requirements, space limitations, and professor availability. They build course plans for individual students, depending on a student’s degree requirements. Administrators can automatically manage student registrations and monitor academic progress to flag students who may be falling behind.
Improve student engagement — Modern students expect technology to create a more personalized and connected experience on campus. They want a streamlined admissions process, a course registration system they can access from mobile devices, a platform for tracking their academic progress, and well-publicized campus events. SIS combines these different data sources into a single system that connects students with the information they need. By giving students more self-service options for academics, housing, and events, SIS software frees up time that administrators would have spent pulling that data for students.
Enhance data accuracy — SIS software stores student data in a centralized database so that it can be accessed by administrators in many different campus roles and departments. The data held in the SIS includes student demographic information, academic records, housing assignments, and health information. Having a single source of data that is updated automatically helps prevent duplicate records and ensure that each user is looking at the most up-to-date information. SIS platforms integrate with other systems that manage the school’s data, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that manage finances, human resources, and facilities.
Gain insights from analytics — Administrators leverage the vast amounts of data managed by SIS into actionable insights using analytics tools in the platforms. By combining data from different sources, SIS users can analyze trends in areas such as admissions, enrollment, or student event participation and explore what is causing the trends. Analytics gives decision makers deeper insights into what is happening on their campuses and helps make more informed decisions about the institution’s future.
Who Uses Higher Education Student Information Systems?
Users of SIS are generally in one of three groups: administrators who manage campus-wide data, professors who manage data for students in their classes, and students who access their own personal records.
Students — A school’s students typically interact with the system through a self-service portal, performing tasks such as registering for classes, checking their grades or progress toward a degree, securing campus housing, or signing up to attend a campus event. With the proliferation of smartphones, mobile access for students has become essential.
Registrar’s office — Administrators responsible for managing student enrollment in classes use SIS software to set up course schedules and help students register for classes.
Student life office — With event management capabilities in many SIS solutions, campus clubs and activities can be organized through the SIS. Students browse listings and can sign up for a club or event as well as receive notifications about events.
Academic advisors — Counselors responsible for helping students stay on track use data in the SIS to generate a degree progress report, allowing students to better understand their academic progress. A growing number of products are incorporating advanced analytics in an effort to identify struggling students and intervene to help.
Housing officials — Many SIS products offer housing management capabilities, enabling administrators to manage dormitory and roommate assignments.
Campus leaders — Analytics and reporting functions in SIS software give administrators insight into overall school performance and are able to unearth new avenues for improvement.
Professors — Some of the most frequent users of SIS are an institution’s faculty. From managing student rosters to submitting grades at the end of the term, SIS is the central data source that faculty rely on. Teachers also take advantage of alerts built into some systems that notify educators when students fall behind and need extra support.
Higher Education Student Information Systems Features
Higher Education SIS products often come with interconnected modules that manage different aspects of the student experience, such as enrolling in classes, finding housing, and participating in campus events. Here are some of the most common features:
Student records management – An SIS stores important data about each student, including demographic data, course enrollments, grades, and degree progress. They also store non-academic data such as activity enrollments, health information, study abroad participation, and housing. This information is made accessible to a variety of stakeholders, including faculty, advisors, and housing managers.
Scheduling – Automatic scheduling features enable administrators to create course schedules based on factors like professor availability, facility capacity, and student needs while automatically detecting any scheduling conflicts.
Course registration – Enrollment modules streamline the process of registering students for courses. Educators control who can register for certain courses and how a course will be categorized. Self-service portals allow students to add and drop courses, join waitlists, and see how a course fits into their degree plan.
Student progress monitoring – Advisors use the academic data in SIS software to monitor students’ progress and guide students who are at risk or struggling. Automated alerts based on criteria that advisors specify can notify them when a student is falling behind and needs extra support. Mobile access enables advisors to get in touch with students and also gives students access to their academic data from anywhere.
Degree audits – Advisors generate degree audits showing students which required courses they have completed and which requirements they still need to meet to earn a degree.
Academic planning – Counselors use planning tools in SIS software to draw up “what if" scenarios in order to give students advice about potential course sequences.
Grading – Automated grading tools streamline the process for educators who need to post grades for midterms and finals. SIS products typically allow teachers to export grading data or transfer it to other systems, like a learning management system (LMS), reducing the need to enter grading data more than once.
Transcript generation – Administrators generate official or unofficial transcripts based on course and grading data.
Additional Higher Education Student Information Systems Features
Housing management – Campus housing can be managed through SIS tools that allow for automated housing placements and roommate assignments, based on the institution’s needs and available space.
Event planning – Some platforms come with functionality for managing school events and student groups. This includes scheduling tools that allow groups to reserve space, a system allowing interested students to browse and sign up for events via mobile devices, and tracking student event attendance.
Career planning – Using career planning tools, students can explore careers that align with their interests and degree path or browse internship opportunities.
Reporting and analytics – Advanced analytics technology built into SIS generates insights from the vast troves of data collected by SIS software. Analytics tools can pull data from multiple sources, including student, financial, and HR data.
Potential Issues with Higher Education Student Information Systems
Integrations with other systems — To maximize the potential benefits of an SIS, the software must be able to integrate and share data with other campus technology products that manage the institution’s HR or finances. Another important aspect is whether an SIS is compatible with the institution’s LMS since the ability to share student information and grading data between an SIS and LMS is crucial for running an efficient academic program. Some institutions purchase many of their campus systems from a single vendor, which helps to ensure the different modules integrate and work seamlessly together. For institutions with systems from different vendors, it is important for administrators to verify that the solutions they are considering integrate well with their existing systems to avoid major data-sharing issues.
Security and data privacy – With the large amounts of sensitive student data contained in an SIS and the large number of users who access it, these systems are vulnerable to data breaches. Among the data stored in SIS are phone numbers, addresses, bank account numbers, and health records. Campus leaders must understand what their biggest data security risks are and choose an SIS that helps them prevent potential breaches. Administrators should investigate whether a solution gets frequent security updates that can be pushed out to all users. Many solutions also offer integrations with multi-factor authentication software to ensure users are who they say they are. Many SIS solutions also have the functionality to restrict which users have access to certain kinds of data is another way to limit the likelihood of a large data breach.
