--- title: Ellucian Student Reviews meta_title: 'Ellucian Student Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 263 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Ellucian Student works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 3.4 review_count: 263 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-07' parent_category: name: Education ERP url: https://www.g2.com/categories/education-erp --- # Ellucian Student Reviews **Vendor:** Ellucian **Category:** [Education ERP Suites](https://www.g2.com/categories/education-erp-suites) **Average Rating:** 3.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 263 ## About Ellucian Student Ellucian Student is higher ed’s complete solution that powers the end-to-end student lifecycle. Together, Student, HCM, and Finance operate as one AI-native platform, aligning people, resources, and decisions around a single vision: to unlock learning for all. Purpose-Built for Higher Education, Ellucian Student brings together key capabilities in one connected experience: \*Recruiting & Admissions — Engage prospective students earlier and simplify enrollment \*Student Aid — Reduce financial friction with personalized aid experiences \*Student Success — Keep learners on track with AI-guided planning and advising \*Lifelong Learning — Connect learning to workforce outcomes with flexible credential pathways \*Advancement — Strengthen alumni and donor engagement Built SaaS-native and powered by AI trained on the richest dataset in higher education, Ellucian Student helps institutions improve outcomes and adapt to evolving learner needs. ## Ellucian Student Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **centralized information** provided by Ellucian Student, enhancing their access to necessary data and resources. (1 reviews) - Users value the **comprehensive features** of Ellucian Student, enhancing their overall experience and operational efficiency. (1 reviews) - Users highlight the **excellent customer support** from Ellucian, enhancing their experience with effective resources and documentation. (1 reviews) - Users value the **ease of access** to resources and support for navigating the Ellucian Student system effectively. (1 reviews) - Users find Ellucian Student to be **easy to use** , allowing effortless completion of tasks as higher education professionals. (1 reviews) - Easy Integrations (1 reviews) - Versatile (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users frequently experience **technical issues** with error codes and unresponsive support, complicating overall usage and training. (2 reviews) - Users experience **access limitations** due to challenging SIS transitions and inadequate support across different departments. (1 reviews) - Users report a **challenging learning curve** with Ellucian Student, especially when transitioning from other systems and requiring training. (1 reviews) - Users express frustration with **poor support** , as issues are often unresolved due to departmental silos and ticket handoffs. (1 reviews) ## Ellucian Student Reviews ### 1. Large Program but no intuitive **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 09, 2019 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Colleague is great and can fit many different functions. A screen can be developed for anything you need! **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Unfortunately, the program is so large that when it updates, info gets lost due to loss of function for certain screens. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Catagorizing and organizing multiple groups of data. ### 2. Effective but complicated **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Banner is effective for it's purposes, but takes time to learn and understand. Once mastered you can efficiently navigate the system, but it can be difficult to learn without help. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The user interface can be a bit difficult to navigate. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** For business purposes, it is equipped to support large enterprises with numerous customers. ### 3. Disappointed by the current version **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I used this product back when it was under a different name and was a dos based product. I like the changes and the zoom features as well as the color choice options. There are still quite a few keyboard shortcuts which are also appreciated. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** I dislike how slow the newest version is. I am currently still using the 4.5 version as it will take me 1-2 minutes to enter in a file but with the newer version with how slow it is and the freezing it is closer to 5 minutes sometimes longer. May not seem like a huge difference but it is when entering 50-100 files a day during busy season. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use it as our main database for all our clients and vendors. ### 4. Banner as SIS **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kimberly C. | Director of Marketing, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** While it's been around for a while and portions of it function that way (layer upon layer of logic), Banner stores a ton of data in a single place. With a bit of doing, you can set roles for various people in a variety of departments to access portions of the system. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Since upgrading Banner versions requires an enormous amount of effort (especially depending on what you have it integrated with across campus), we were not using the most recent version of the system at all. In addition, while Ellucian advertises many Banner "integrations" with third party software, they are not turnkey. In order to share information between the admissions recruitment database (a non-Ellucian product) and Banner (since student ID's are created in Banner but need to also be populated in the admissions CRM), we ended up having to build a manual bridge using in-house development resources. The advertised "integration" was simply not useful. Also to note: the Banner interface is not the most user-friendly thing in the world - new users will likely have a fairly big learning curve. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used Banner as many colleges and universities do: as our student information system for currently enrolled students, to track grades, enrollment and financial aid information, and course registration information. ### 5. Not a good software **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Business Supplies and Equipment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** If I had to choose the best thing about this software is that it was easy to use. However it was not what it stood up to be at all **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Didn’t perform the commands I requested. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am solving technical algorithms for my business marketing strategies ### 6. Has its ups & downs **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 22, 2019 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I use the Colleauge aspect of ellucian & their interfaces are pretty standard **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** I don’t feel like it’s as up to date with the competition as other software **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** It usually assists with our students issues and problems. Helps out with student success by giving the right information ### 7. Learning Curve Pays off **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2019 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** The system is easy enough to use once you get used to the codes and layout. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Certain actions can't be undone once you save it. Certain screens look cluttered if you have to redo or rework line items. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Payment processing ### 8. Banner Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I like that the system is easy to navigate and you can drill down quickly to get the most up to date student information. I also like the platform as it tracks personal employee information including pay, benefits, etc.. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Sometimes you have to drill down to several screens in order to get exactly the information needed or you have to back out to the original screen to change one search term to get the information you need. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** This system houses many areas of information and is for the most part very easy to use. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We utilize this to see our student information and provide services based on their information listed in the system. It is also helpful because you can quickly download employee tax forms or benefit and time information. ### 9. 1980's technology with a glaze of web 2.0 overtop of it **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Not much of anything. I try to avoid using this program as much as possible. It's baffling to me that in 2018 we are still using something as incomprehensibly ineffective as this product. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The system is archaic at best. Frustrating. Burdensome. Tasks that should take minutes in a modern system take hours or days due to the poorly designed system architecture. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** It feels like it would be easier to do everything on pen and paper than to use this program. You can feel your blood pressure rising as you become more and more frustrated by the GUI. They published a major update last year for Banner, and in doing so they somehow managed to make it WORSE and more difficult to use. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** It provides a database of user information. ### 10. Banner 8 Financial Aid **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ali D. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Easy to use program that has been in place for 10+ years. Currently in the process of implementing Banner 9, which is said to have some major changes. This program has been great for our school's awarding of Financial Aid funds and review. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Keystrokes can take a little getting used to and there are a few quarks with some screens. We have some in-house forms that will not be supported by the upgrade that will be difficult to replace or find a different vendor for. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Awarding and review of Financial Aid funds at a public higher education institution. ### 11. I use Banner as a database at a community college. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amanda C. | Administrative Office Technician, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 01, 2016 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Once you know what you're doing, it's a useful database for looking up information on students or faculty, such as grades, addresses, contact information, etc. You can also use it to look up class rosters, final grades, registration by semester or also for an entire student's time at the college. I also use it to reserve rooms for academic events. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** I don't think it's very intuitive. You have to learn how to do everything step by step. It even looks as if it is an older program, it's not quite as sleek or modern looking as other programs I've used. I would like it better if it was more sleek, modern, looking and more user friendly. It's easy to push a wrong button and then have a screen pop up that the close button is just out of view, and for someone who may not have used it much, they may have trouble figuring out what to do to get back to the original screen. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Don't be off put by the lack of intuitiveness. Once you know what your'e doing, it's a very useful tool. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** The benefit of being able to look up student information in different ways is great. I can look up by class or I can look them up individually as a student. Also I can see one semester or I can look across their entire community college career. It's nice to have these options. It's the same with their grades. I can look up their final grades for just one semester and see the GPA for that semester, or I can look up the cumulative GPA and see all the final grades. It can cater to whichever I need for whatever I'm working on. ### 12. Exhaustive but not Efficient **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joey T. | Instructor and Academic Advisor, Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Ellucian can perform a lot of functions, including grades, registration, and information, while being customizable to our campus curriculum and structure **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Not efficient. Archaic in the way you find information or navigate through the app. Where a intuitive app takes one click of the mouse, Ellucian guarantees 3-4 clicks. This is probably due to its desire to be customized. It really is difficult to get anywhere quick or efficiently. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** I think I would if there system was very archaic, but I think there are better products out there. I will say that this is probably the most popular all-in-one system for academia. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Class registration, degree progress, financial aid information, scheduling, grade input. I have enjoyed the consolidation of all these features in one location. ### 13. Banner **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 03, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** The ease of use of this program and the ease of learning it **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Nothing about this program to dislike at this time. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Great product and easy to learn and use. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Provides the benefits of having everything we need to do in one place ### 14. Your worst nightmare until you learn the backdoor tricks. **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jered S. | Admissions Recruiter, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 06, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** It is hard to find something that I do like about this product. I will say that once you learn all the quarks, it becomes easier to work with. The screens that do display the information are very clear, once you are able to get to where you need to go. Unfortunately, the product fails to deliver on their promise to made managing student profiles easier. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Ellucian claims that this product is able to communicate with all of their other platforms, recruit, advise, but I find that is the lest accurate claim. There are continuous communication problems between the platforms and lost of student information. Colleague has many different information screens that hold various different important student information, you have to hop between multiple screens just to find the answer to a single questions. The platform is not user friendly and unless you know all the shortcut codes, this product will be your worst enemy. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** There are far better platforms that manage student in better ways. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** The problems of managing student profiles and being able to access information, still lingers. Colleague was proposed as a one product meet all, but you will quickly learn you need all of the Ellucian platforms to be effective in all areas of student management. ### 15. NOT very user friendly interface **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amber A. | Data Analyst, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I honestly don't like much about the product at all. The only good thing is the ability to use the HELP option to get information on what table & field are being used for each field of data. I would not recommend this application. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The interface, the ability to move from one section to another (tab doesn't work, must CTRL + PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN). In order to run any form or save anything, you have to use function keys (that I have to keep on a cheat sheet because I always forget which to use). The fact that form names are different than table names. So much more. Just NOT user friendly. Also some fields you cannot click on, so you can't see what table/field they are from in the database. As a data analyst, this is very frustrating. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Just don't. Try to find another option! **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use the product for Institutional Research. It does capture pretty much all the data we need to provide reports on student data, but I access the data through PLSQL tools rather than Banner directly. The only true benefit is that when used as data entry, there isn't anything that it doesn't capture. ### 16. Clunky but relatively easy to use. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Once you remember the screens you need to use, it's easy to relearn Banner basics even after not using for many years. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Banner is a clunky system that is hard to navigate when using to view a single individual's information. I also wish the internet native Banner could be used in a browser other than IE/Edge (of course I have installed the Chrome plugin to be able to use it in **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Personalize your banner with a cheat sheet so that you can quickly navigate to the screens you don't often use (I promise that you will memorize the codes that you use frequently). **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Banner works for a wide range of offices within a higher education institution. It allows consistency and automatic updates. ### 17. Lots of Info - not a lot of convenience **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Julia S. | Director of Doctor of Ministry Program, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Banner has the ability to contain A LOT of information. About everything. It is a really great foundational database that can be your "go to" when you need very specific information about a particular student. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Banner is very chunks, not easy to navigate, and requires you to go a million different places to find information. There is no option to get a real decent birds-eye view of a student or class or finances. You have to go into individual records for everything. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Great place to securely keep A TON of information - not super user friendly. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** In our organization "banner is king" meaning, if there is ever conflicting data - you go with what is in banner. It is the reliable database for strict facts and information. Unfortunately, because of its lack of ease and functionality, we have to have several shadow databases we keep the same type of information in that is easier to look at and sort. But it is very nice to have banner as the secure back up of data. ### 18. Stable and reliable Higher Education System **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Timothy S. | IT Project Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 04, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I like this application because it is very steady during registration peak time. The application has many features that enable students to track their grades, registration calendar and even finances and payments. The application is so customizable and integrates well with most LDAP systems. Additionally, the application has highly secure features, which are critical to such functions. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Due to its flexibility in adding sections and tabs, navigation can sometimes become tricky to students. i do recommend introducing a fast search inside the application or change the main template **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** It is essential to a Higher Education institution **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** In the two Higher Ed. institutions i worked for, Banner was used to managing course registration, student calendar, academic reports, and enrollment/ bill payments. Even student employment can be integrated into this application. ### 19. Convoluted but gets the job done **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I like the fact that Banner is customizable. We have had to create several of our own Banner screens to do things that weren't built in, so it's been great to have that capability. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Banner is VERY finicky. You have to click the exact right buttons in the exact right order or it won't work. You may even get stuck in a screen and have to crash the whole program and restart. Also, it is not multi-user friendly, meaning that two people can't edit the same screen at once. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** All of our systems are basically controlled behind the scenes by Banner. It's what runs our whole system right now. ### 20. Tons of functionality, if you can find it **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** It has so many search functions, so much data, and so many options. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The naming conventions are not intuitive and it requires memorizing a list of seven letter codes to find things. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We now have a database ### 21. Helpful but not Intuitive **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Krysta W. | Site Coordinator , Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Great for storing info and holding my students permissions/ registration, but not good at having a list or prompting options for forms. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The lack of ease: for example, there is a lot of memorization required to use for student accounts that aren't easy to remember (i.e. granting permissions/waivers). It would be more helpful if you could search a list of codes/forms instead of having to know them. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Make sure you wither input your abbreviations/add-on a way to look up what forms/options you have for users. It will be especially useful for training and new-hires. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Registering/ updating/Looking up student accounts. Benefits include: accessing accounts of my students without having them physically in my office or logging in as them, ### 22. Colleague is a completely integrated campus solution **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jamie S. | Programmer Analyst, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** There are many products that fall under Colleague. We use Student, Financials, HR, and Advancement. They are tied together by Core which contains demographic information shared by all of the modules. You only have to update a record in one place and that takes care of the entire platform. Our students are able to take advantage of their web based products, too. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Ellucian, formerly Datatel, is behind the curve when it comes to it's interface. Although they have made great gains in the past few years, their interface is not as modern as it should be **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use Colleague to track everything about a student from the time we start recruiting them. That includes demographics, high school and college academics, communications, financial aid, student accounts, residence life, NCAA compliance, etc. Eventually we convert them to Advancement where they are alumni. Their alumni information is linked with their student information and even donation information. We are able to bring that all together in one software package. ### 23. Easy to use, once you learn your acronyms **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Once you learn all the screens you need, it does become easy to find what you're looking for. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** I wish it could interact with other programs easier. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Personally, I feel as though we are not using Colleague to it's full extent and feel as though it could fix some of the issue that we do have. ### 24. Banner--Comprehensive database **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anissa H. | Tutor Coordinator/Associate Professor, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Banner is a comprehensive database that includes many different data sets and also integrates well with many, many other data based tools. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Banner is not windows driven and does not have intuitive keystrokes or functionality for an inexperienced user. It is visually more like an old DOS-based sofrware with field codes and forms rather than the more friendly apps or Windows-based software most users are accustomed to. There is a steep learning curve in Banner. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Banner is a well known software but is a big purchase financially and systemically. Make sure it meets your needs before investing and consider the ancillary projects or data needs of your organization. It is also important to assess your tech support and functional support as new users will need a mentor to learn this software, especially when problem solving with Banner for a local organization. Without proper support locally, I do not think new users will have what is needed. Banner conferences are useful, but most users need day to day support until they have mastered their aspect of the software. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Banner provides the data that we need for searches, verification, and holding data for our school. It interfaces well with many other tools so it serves as an effective tool to house data safely so it is effective in its main purpose. ### 25. Great software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 07, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I like how easy it is to work on and how easy it is to navigate **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Plain look. I wish it also was more customizable **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to communicate efficiently with other employees ### 26. Not a Huge Fan **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dan B. | Doctoral Projects Administrator for the DMin Program, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** As a one-stop shop for storing and finding information about students, Banner is useful. I can use it to find out almost anything I need about a student -- from grades and course history, to payments. However, it's finding that information that's the trick. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Banner is probably one of the least intuitive programs I have ever used. The learning curve is unbelievably steep. I've been using it for over 5 years and I still have to call tech support half the time to help me find what I'm looking for. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Get help from someone who knows the program well -- you will need it. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's good for keeping track of students. It has helped me provide better customer support and answer student inquiries about their accounts. ### 27. Inputting data for prospective students **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Large database that is able to store multiple pieces of information about prospective students **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Speed of the program. I opt to use the older version of the program as it does not freeze as much. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Consider a faster program **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Multiple departments can use the same program to record information ### 28. Perfect Organization Database **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marylin O. | Clinical Social Work Intern, Hospital & Health Care, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 08, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I like the facility to access information **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** I dislike it’s confusing at first. It takes a while to navigate and know what you’re doing **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** I would like a quick tutorial to be implemented for the people who learn by doing rather than in a manual. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps find a profile rather quickly and all the information is there. ### 29. Review of Colleague by Ellucian **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 14, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** The ability to store multiple pieces of information in one location that can be accessed by multiple departments **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The speed of the program. Aesthetic updates are done that effect the speed of the program. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to capture and record information on prospects, applicants, and alumni ### 30. Useful system for Education Management **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I enjoy the user-friendly environment created by Colleague **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Running queries can be difficult if you're not a seasoned user. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been able to identify a group of students using Colleague in a manner I was unable to use with any other programs. ### 31. Updated and Better than ever!! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** That I don't have to be on campus to use it as well as it doesn't have the java requirement anymore!! **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Still working out kinks with the Major Changes. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** NA ### 32. Update was clunky **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jennifer O. | Laboratory Coordinator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Since the integration of the new update, I like that you are able to to search what function you need instead of having to remember each code. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Before the upgrade I was able to navigate the entire requisition entering process without taking my hands off the keyboard (even on my laptop) now I have to switch between keyboard and mouse and it takes longer. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** For an all inclusive system it does its job. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is an easy system to keep all information in one location ### 33. Seems ok, but could use some revamping **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Diana Y. | International Student Advisor, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I can look up a student and their academics, level, degree, and current coursework. Seems to be good start to organizing international student information and data but some features may need improvement. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Some features should be listed (more tabs), such as if the student is designated as an international, permanent resident, US citizen, etc. This is critical to my line of work since I work with international student information and management of their enrollment that can affect their legal status. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Essentially it does help look up, evaluate, and check students and track their course history and grades, but it could be much simpler in format layout and better functional tools to use. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Realized that sometimes it takes awhile to load, and navigating through the tabs can be confusing initially, so the interface seems intuitive, but not always. ### 34. BANNEr for University Usage **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 02, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I enjoy that BANNER is able to function in many ways with a lot of data - more specifically that many different offices can use it simultaneously, especially in a University as big as the one I work at. I also enjoy the customization options to fit the University's needs. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** It is not particularity user friendly - there is a lot of training that goes into learning how to use BANNER. It is not the most intuitive software. There are a lot of large manuals that are needed for instructions on how to use different BANNER screens because usage is a bit convoluted. Different screens have different ways in which you access the information, and for older members of our office, it can be difficult to have them all memorized. It is also not the most visually appealing software - the way the information is displayed could be improved. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** It functions really well for a large University that needs a one stop software for all of their Offices on campus. While I only use it for Graduate Admissions, it is used by our University for Financial Aid, the Registrar, and Academic Advising, Student Success, etc. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it specifically for maintaining and processing Graduate Admissions applications. The benefits are that many people can access the information and that it is accessible throughout our University system. ### 35. Clunky, Slow, constant Java issues **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stephanie B. | Assistant To The Director, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** There is absolutely nothing I actually like about Banner. I have to use it at the University I work at and it is constantly causing me frustration and time every day of the workweek, all year. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Slow to load. Must grant multiple permissions each time ran. Support is virtually non-existent. Is not intuitive to user or IT. Long, confusing, similarly named alphanumeric titles for all forms. Difficult to navigate (too many buttons visible that have no purpose on that form or page). User guide is not laid out well, hard to find what form you need. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** I highly recommend not using this software. Please spend your time to research a better option. Banner has been sliding downhill for years and is the most frustrating part of my workday. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use banner to verify student grades, records, prerequisites, transfer courses, contact information, and to grant permissions to register for courses. There is nothing beneficial this software does that another could not do better. ### 36. Useful platform for data management, but outdated and clunky **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Self-service Banner is quick and relatively easy to navigate as a fundraising professional working in higher ed. Shows all current and historical info I need to see. Used across different teams at my organizations, so it serves multiple functions for different groups. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Outdated and limited search functions in self-service; doesn't allow for sophisticated queries like other platforms I simultaneously use. Not mobile friendly, which is frustrating when trying to view/search for information on the road or on the fly. INB Banner is more sophisticated and the "backend" of the product, but it's not something I use regularly. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Consider how it can be used across various teams, and whether Banner can "talk" to other software platforms you may be using currently or may consider using in the future. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Use to view donor profiles/info/giving history - colleagues use it to track gifts to our organization. Helpful for data management and record keeping. Talks to another software platform/product that my organization uses, so it solves the problem of data management - we own the information that is inputted. ### 37. Ellucian Colleague **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jordan Reed H. | Office Manager of Information Technology, Maritime, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** It it an easy to use platform that I was able to easily adapt to when beginning to use it. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** It can sometimes be very slow depending on which code you are processing. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use Colleague as an institution-wide way to track and process information. It allows users to do multiple steps of a report at once. ### 38. Good data storage but not user friendly **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Elizabeth S. | Assistant Online Coordinator and Program Advisor, Higher Education, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 15, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Banner stores every kind of data that would be needed about a student, FAFSA, schedules, personal information, grades, registration, etc. It interfaces with most systems used on campus to provide a solid back end and data storage site. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** It is very hard to navigate with hundreds of specialized screen names, complicated key commands and icons and information that does not easily link or drill down without navigating to more screens. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** The new banner which is are currently running as a trial is slightly more useable and had some nice features such as saving screens and searching. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data storage and course registration backend. ### 39. Clunky with poor search functionality **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** I suppose Banner does technically do the job we try to use it for, which is managing the biographical and giving information of individuals, corporations, and foundations. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The search function is awful. You have to spell the name exactly as it appears in Banner, and this often leads to confusion when multiple people in an organization are allowed to create records in Banner. It's hard to extract information from as well--you have to extensively sort and manipulate the data you extract in order to make it useful. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** I would encourage you to shop around before you decide on Banner. I think there are other products out there that perform better than Banner does. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to store a large amount of information in Banner by Ellucian, which is primarily what we use it for. We also use other complementary software to extend the usefulness of the Banner capabilities. ### 40. It's the biggest out there **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** It's used by everyone. Because everyone uses it there is a huge community to pull employees from for daily use in transcriptioning or processing **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** It's not the most user friendly. It takes a while to get all the buttons down pat and it can take you a bit of time to feel comfortable in using the process. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Make sure you need something this robust. It's great to have the community, but honestly it's a lot of product. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Transcripts and daily records. It's universal and has a huge amount of data over years ### 41. Feels Old-School **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 18, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** The thing I like best about this product is that the bulk of the data is stored in one place and that there is the ability to set roles for different types of users allowing different types of access. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** It is so cumbersome and clunky. It is not intuitive or user-friendly. The abbreviations, terminology for use, the icons, and the workflow seem old and early-iteration. I think even if the look was refreshed it would "seem" better and perhaps not be a frustrating to work with. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** I admit that I don't know if we are running the "latest and greatest" version of this product. It is possible that there are more current iterations and/or features that our university has opted out of. It just feels clunky and awkward. It is not intuitive. Finding information feels cumbersome and is time consuming. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Banner does give us a place to store and collect and access the data is essential to do the work that we do. I understand that some of the issues I have with Banner may be a result of the way my university ties the program to other programs and not a direct issue with Banner itself. ### 42. Colleague by Ellucian to keep students, faculty, and staff actively engaged and integrated. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** What I like best about Colleague Ellucian is that advisors and students can utilize the software to build their course schedule and see the progress of the student as they go along each semester. Students can also access to their financial aid information in a user friendly environment. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** What I dislike about Colleague by Ellucian is that the interface is not very intuitive. It takes time to learn how to use it and to understand it's capabilities. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Colleague by Ellucian allows for an integrated self-software allows students to build a school course schedule under student planning, allows Financial Aid students access to their information, while also allowing advising staff to view and modify information as needed. ### 43. It’ll always be Datatel to me! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** How much comes free and you don’t have to pay extra for. Plus I love their support and hub for users to talk to each other and brain storm and come up with new ideas. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** There really isn’t much. It’s a great system. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Go to a user conference in your area or the annual E-Live event. Make connections and get all your questions answered. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We’ve made great improvements in our processes with Ellucian Colleague. We’ve streamlined our Faculty Assignment Contract process and saved tons of time and money. ### 44. Love it, takes a while for newbies **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Easy to follow fields, if the business keeps form names then changes them on the back end creating reports is tough. Quick flows are great for processing. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** If ellucian doesn't set up it gets screwy. Form names can be turned into fun names but those names and the original form names (ssasect for instance) doesn't have anything to do with the form itself most of the time. Kinda clumsy for the user but easily overcome. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick flows show flow that goes along with customer service. Helps alot in a pinch. ### 45. Banner is outdated **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Banner is a fairly decent record keeping software for students with a variety of widgets and plugins students can access for learning purposes. It is also able to host a online learning platforms. I have recently learned that Banner can be customized, integrated with other software, can be used for recruiting and retention purposes, financial aid, etc. For the longest time I thought it was simply a record keeping software since that was all I used it for, but I appreciate it's potential to offer so much more for higher education professionals. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Almost everything. The software does not always successfully feed to and from various softwares. The application will not update to salesforce and vice versa for things like enrollment management or major changes. The navigation of the platform is often confusing for most students. Many students have reported that the online classroom is incredibly difficult - even for learners who have held all of their education online. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Be patient with Banner. It does what it's supposed to be requires time. There are upgrades coming that are supposed to make the system better and easier to use for faculty, staff, and students. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** This software is used to hold student records, the online platform, webinars, student resources, university notifications, and feed into a degree audit system. The benefit is that the system will always do exactly what it needs to/is programmed to do. ### 46. Complicated but powerful **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michael P. | System Administrator, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** The software is powerful and highly customizable. When working closely with developers and programmers, and closely monitoring baseline code changes implemented by Ellucian, you can pretty much do anything you want on various different levels of the ERP system. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** It is. It very user friendly when using things like INB. The forms are finicky and clunky. Unless everything is working perfectly, error management is difficult at best. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use it for our ERP, and our entire business of higher ed is based around it. The benefit being it's a one-stop-shop for all of our needs, SSB, INB, etc. ### 47. Colleague? Datatel? **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lauren R. | Assistant to the Dean, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** It is simple to find student ID numbers in this software. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** I do not like how consistently there has been change within this company. It was formerly named datatel and with each new change it feels as though I am thrown off. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** I do enjoy this software. It has enabled us to keep track of our student's information easily, but is also a bit buggy at times and we often have issues with the software of it. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to use this software to better manage student ID and demographic information. ### 48. Good but slow to update **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alex J. | Programmer, Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** There are many features and fantastic support with this software. Usually you have a great amount of customization options. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** The updates to the software and the language it is written is quickly is becoming out of date, they really need to reinvest into a more robust programming language. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our ERP is Banner, plus we use it for an interface for student transcripts, records, etc. ### 49. Not Intuitive, But Easy to Navigate **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** Ease of finding the item i'm looking for **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** Internal navigation takes some learning, but then is quite simple and easy to explain. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Tracking relationships, managing communications and next steps ### 50. Great! **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Ellucian Student?** The easy ability to learn and use it. The variety of access available to different users. How secure it is. **What do you dislike about Ellucian Student?** I think overall it is great! Nothing to dislike. **Recommendations to others considering Ellucian Student:** Take the time to learn how to use it, go to training for the appropriate screens you have access to. **What problems is Ellucian Student solving and how is that benefiting you?** Access to student information in an easier and more secure way than using other SIS. ## Ellucian Student Discussions - [What's the difference between Ellucian Student and Banner or Colleague on-premises?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-s-the-difference-between-ellucian-student-and-banner-or-colleague-on-premises) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Does my organization have to modernize to Ellucian SaaS all at once?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/does-my-organization-have-to-modernize-to-ellucian-saas-all-at-once) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How will moving to Ellucian SaaS help my Institution innovate?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-will-moving-to-ellucian-saas-help-my-institution-innovate) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Why does my institution need a higher ed-specific SIS or ERP like Ellucian Student?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/why-does-my-institution-need-a-higher-ed-specific-sis-or-erp-like-ellucian-student) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How is Ellucian Student different from other SIS providers?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-is-ellucian-student-different-from-other-sis-providers) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Ellucian Student pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/ellucian-student/reviews?page=3§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-08+07%3A50%3A36+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=8f63e3db-c5c3-48ba-8ee0-c6a451d5a05f&secure%5Btoken%5D=7d8127d1b708a1ce09325a3908c6b25806ca1a3916b7ff1d4470325546860908&format=llm_user) ## Ellucian Student Integrations - [Ellucian Recruiting & Admissions](https://www.g2.com/products/ellucian-recruiting-admissions/reviews) ## Ellucian Student Features **Platform Performance** - Reporting **Integrations** - Integrations - Communication - Data Sharing **Agentic AI - Student Information Systems (SIS)** - Cross-system Integration **Agentic AI - Education ERP** - Cross-system Integration **Enrollment & Academic Management** - Online Admissions & Application Management - Course Registration & Timetable Scheduling - Academic Records & Transcript Management - Degree Audit & Progress Tracking - Financial Aid Management - Class Scheduling - Document Management - Learning Management - Library Management - Communication Management - Calendar Management - Attendance Management - Discipline Management - Faculty/Staff Management - Transportation Management - Assessment Management - Classroom Management - Forms Management - Registration Management - Curriculum Management - Housing Management - Fundraising Management - Alumni Management - Student Information/Records - Scheduling **Platform Data** - Platform Search - Dashboard **Planning** - Creating plans - Scenarios **Core Modules** - Finance and Accounting - Human Resources - Billing and Fees **Financial & Billing Operations** - Tuition Billing & Student Account Management - Integrated Budget & Financial Reporting - Refund & Payment Plan Automation - Financial Aid & Scholarship Administration - Online Payments - Student Management **Platform Content** - Automation - File Sharing **Progress monitoring** - Degree progress - Reporting and analytics - Identifying at-risk students - Recording notes **Reporting** - Report Generation - Report Automation **Student Engagement & Support Tools** - Communication & Alerts System - Student Self‑Service Portal - Alumni Support - Academic Advising & Success Tools - Parent/Student Portal - Collaboration Tools - Self Service Portal **Platform Additional Functionality** - Messaging **Outreach** - Messaging - Appointment scheduling - Alerts and Notifications - Self-Service tools - Mobility **Artificial Intelligence & Analytics** - Natural Language Query & Reporting - Automated Chat & Support Bots - Predictive Analytics - AI‑Assisted Academic Planning **Additional Functionality** - Reporting & Statistics - For Higher Education - Drag & Drop - Alerts/Notifications - Customizable Branding - Search/Filter - Activity Dashboard - Generative AI - Customizable Reports - Performance Metrics - Chat/Messaging - Third-Party Integrations - API - AI Copilot - Report Cards - Fee Collection - Mobile App - Role-Based Permissions ## Top Ellucian Student Alternatives - [Workday Student](https://www.g2.com/products/workday-student/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (55 reviews) - [Jenzabar One](https://www.g2.com/products/jenzabar-one/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (56 reviews) - [Oracle Higher Education Cloud](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-higher-education-cloud/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (14 reviews)