The University will be transitioning its uAchieve software from on-premises servers to the vendor’s cloud version. This move also includes an upgrade to the latest version of uAchieve. The majority of users will notice little-to-no changes in their use of the system.
Project information
Project objectives
- Transition uAchieve from on premises servers maintained by the University to the vendor’s cloud service
- Upgrade to version 5.2 of uAchieve
- Retire Graduation Planner and prepare for an implementation of uAchieve Planner.
Timeline
May 2025
Project kick off
May 2025-November 2025
Work with vendor on configuration and data connections
November 2025-January 2026
User acceptance testing
Mid-February 2026
Go-live of uAchieve Cloud
Benefits
- With a move to the cloud, the University will be able to use additional uAchieve functionality and tools that are currently not an option with an on-premises installation. The shift will also enable the University to work directly with the vendor to meet University needs. This could shorten the completion of change needs from months to days.
- The University will also gain access to two new services called “Transcript Importer” and “Degree Discovery.”
- Transcript Importer allows transcript information to be ingested automatically, eliminating the need for admissions staff to manually enter transcript data from other institutions.
- With Degree Discovery, the vendor can run students through all degrees to find potential matches up to 2 times per year. This information would be provided in a file to University staff who could use the information to assist students.
- Depending upon available resources, “Program Matcher” may be expanded to allow use at all system campuses. Program Matcher (currently in use at Morris and Crookston) runs a single batch of students every two weeks against all possible degrees, programs, certifications, etc. to identify students who already meet requirements. Students can see this information as they are exploring degree options.
Impacts to Graduation Planner
Graduation Planner depends on data from uAchieve to function. When uAchieve moves to the cloud, the data integration will break and Graduation Planner will no longer work.
uAchieve has a planner that the University will be implementing. Work on that implementation will start as soon as possible after the transition to the uAchieve cloud is complete. This means that there will be a period of time when there is no graduation planner functionality available.
Graduation Planner will retire January 30, 2026 and the timeline for a replacement is not available. The intent is to make this period of time as short as possible while still providing the functionality needed by students and their advisors. Those who rely most heavily on Grad Planner are aware of this and have begun directing users to alternative tools.
A town hall was held in September 2025 to provide more details on this and to listen to feedback from the University community. You can watch a recording of that meeting.
Communication to students
Communications to students will be centrally coordinated through each campus’ Office of the Registrar. There is no expectation that colleges, departments, or advisors communicate the APAS move to the cloud (and upgrade) or the retirement of Graduation planner, but those communications would be welcome.
Since the work on APAS is expected to be largely unnoticed by students, communications will focus on the retirement of Graduation Planner. The goals of these communications are to:
- Discourage new adoption of Graduation Planner.
- Encourage saving a copy of existing plans that are in Graduation Planner.
- Provide resources to help with planning in the interim (e.g., APAS, Course Catalog, sample plans).
Each One Stop website has been updated with information on the Graduation Planner retirement:
A banner message will be added to Graduation Planner before the start of spring 2026 registration with a link to the One Stop page linked above:
"Graduation Planner will be retiring January 30, 2026. For more information, visit the [campus] One Stop website."
As the project progresses, communications will be more targeted. We will update this space with those details.
Contact
If you have any questions about this implementation, please contact the project manager, Chelsea Harms at [email protected].