UC Berkeley and Kuali Student

UC Berkeley has decided to withdraw its participation in the open-source software Kuali Student, effective June 30, 2012. The University's five-year commitment is ending and our assessment of the Kuali software development timeline versus our students' needs, led us to this decision. We need to move more quickly and in a more focused way to provide students the services they consider a priority. This includes more efficient software systems for registering for classes, obtaining financial aid information, and checking on grades.

Kuali Student is an open-source product designed to provide institutions of higher education with a single platform through which students could manage a wide array of students' University-business needs including registration, access to course schedules, transcripts, etc. The system would also allow campus officials to schedule classes more efficiently, integrate information from other units (such as Summer Sessions and UC Extension), address emergency prepared needs, and other matters. A consortium of colleges and universities across the country has been involved in this effort. The goal was to complete this ambitious project by 2012. However, a completion date is still pending.

Participation in the consortium has brought our staff new cutting-edge technology skills and has allowed us to develop a few Kuali-based systems, including a paperless system that will allow faculty to submit new courses for approval or modify existing courses online.

Lyle Nevels, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor IT & CIO
Anne De Luca, PhD., Associate Vice Chancellor — Admissions & Enrollment

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Kuali Student?
Kuali Student is an open-source system designed to provide institutions of higher education with a single platform through which students could manage a wide array of students' University-business needs including registration, access to course schedules, transcripts, etc. The system would also allow campus officials to schedule classes more efficiently, integrate information from other units (such as Summer Sessions and UC Extension), address emergency prepared needs, and other matters.

What was the planned timeframe for completing the development of Kuali Student?
Beginning in 2007, a consortium of colleges and universities across the country have been involved in this effort. The goal was to complete this ambitious project by 2012, however, that date has passed and a new completion date is still pending. When we signed up for the program we were hopeful that the program would be completed by 2012. Unfortunately, that has not been the case and we have to think of our students' needs at this time. We simply need to move more quickly.

What will the campus do in lieu of Kuali Student and what is the time frame?
The campus just recently decided to withdraw from Kuali and will now consider other options to get us where we need to be. We know that we would like to have a new software program in place that addresses our students' most pressing needs, within the next two years, if at all possible.

Has the campus seen benefits from participating in the development of Kuali Student?
Being a part of the Kuali Student development team has brought our campus some new cutting-edge skills; we've learned best practices from other member institutions; and we move on with a couple of helpful software programs for the UC Berkeley campus that were outcomes of the Kuali Student work. We completed business process mapping and requirements gathering for student systems, and laid the foundation for future efforts in this area.

However at this point, we have to focus more narrowly on our students' priority issues rather than invest additional time toward a much larger and more ambitious shared project. Given that our five-year contract was ending, it made sense to take this action at this time.