May 29, 2024
Purdue partners with Ellucian to implement leading degree audit and planning solution to help students chart their academic progress, career goals
Through a partnership with Ellucian, Purdue is now offering an innovative digital tool that will help Boilermaker students and their advisors to plan, manage and progress through academic goals and career preparation. (Purdue University photo)
Jenna Rickus
Download image
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University officials announced Wednesday (May 29), as part of its Transformative Education 2.0 initiative, the launch of Ellucian Smart Plan, an innovative degree audit and planning tool that will allow Boilermaker students and their advisors to easily plan, manage and progress through academic goals and career preparation.
The intelligent, cloud-based software helps students cross the finish line on time, avoiding critical errors that delay completion and can amount to additional financial obligations. The Ellucian Smart Plan automatically solves for plan-altering events, like a change in major or a shift in program requirements. By handling these tasks, the software frees up advisors’ time to foster deeper, more personalized support for students. For the first time, students and advisors can cede planning responsibility to the planner — and instead, focus their energy on executing it.
“Students and academic advisors will be able to use Ellucian Smart Plan to develop personalized semester-by-semester plans and track successful progress toward degree completion, preparing them for their careers of choice,” said Jenna Rickus, Purdue vice provost for teaching and learning and the John Martinson Honors College. “The tool includes a real-time snapshot of the student’s entire academic career and how courses could look for each semester going forward.
“Ellucian Smart Plan will empower informed decision-making for all campus stakeholders from students, advisors, department chairs, deans, provosts and the president,” Rickus added. “At a broader campus level, it will help facilitate more accurate modeling of course demand, helping us maximize our campus physical spaces and enhance our overall teaching and learning mission.”
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Cherise Hall
Download image
“Purdue is dedicated to serving its community and improving student outcomes, and we’re thrilled to amplify its impact with cutting-edge solutions,” said Jeff Dinski, Ellucian’s chief strategy and corporate development officer. “At Ellucian, our mission is to power higher education so institutions can empower student success. Through the implementation of Ellucian Smart Plan, we aim to equip students with the tools they need to seamlessly navigate their academic journey."
Ellucian Smart Plan will integrate and optimize course-to-career planning technology. Cherise Hall, Purdue vice provost for enrollment management, said the tool provides individualized answers to students and advisors on matters such as required courses for a particular degree or plan of study, when those courses are available and if prerequisites are needed.
“Early on in the Transformative Education 2.0 project, we recognized the need for a responsive degree planning and auditing tool that would also provide robust data analytics and reporting capabilities,” Hall said. “After an extensive vendor selection process, we felt that Ellucian Smart Plan would meet all of our criteria, plus offer a guided, personalized and optimal pathway to degree completion for students.”
Purdue junior Kyle Emgenbroich, who is studying business analytics and information management in the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, used the Ellucian Smart Plan tool during its pilot phase. Its simplicity, he said, is helping him plan out his semesters and that the ease with which one can make changes or switch out electives will be a big plus for students.
“The fact that it will plan out my four years at Purdue based off my plan of study and what I had come in with from high school is really neat when you’ll take over 40 courses at Purdue,” Emgenbroich said. “For it to know about a chain of prerequisites and perfectly plan that out in Ellucian Smart Plan really helps me to make sure I graduate in four years, and my advisor doesn't have to check because Ellucian Smart Plan just knows.”
In partnering with Ellucian to implement Smart Plan, Purdue joins other U.S. universities and community colleges including Amarillo College, Hillsborough Community College, Fayetteville Technical Community College, Texas A&M University-San Antonio and Central New Mexico Community College.
About Ellucian
Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving 22 million students. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student life cycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising and alumni engagement. Ellucian’s innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.
About Purdue University
Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.
Media Contacts:
Purdue: Phillip Fiorini, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Ellucian: Jess Weston, jess.weston@ellucian.com
Sources: Jenna Rickus
Jeff Dinski
Cherise Hall
