Case Study: Laurentian University achieves a 10-year high in student retention and improved student experience with Ellucian Colleague and Student Planning

Improving retention and interdepartmental engagement through digital transformation

Laurentian University, the largest university in Northern Ontario, launched a campus-wide digital transformation to unify the institution and improve all phases of the student experience—especially student planning—while maintaining daily operations with a 34-person IT team. To support this effort, Laurentian partnered with Ellucian and deployed Ellucian Colleague and Ellucian Colleague Student Planning to centralize registration, advising and other core academic workflows.

Ellucian implemented Colleague and Student Planning to integrate core applications, visualize the student journey from application to graduation, and streamline the user experience for students and advisors; over two academic years this contributed to retention reaching a 10‑year high. Additional outcomes reported by Laurentian University include improved data visualization, enhanced interdepartmental engagement, and sustainable, easily maintained systems.

Laurentian University

Luc Roy

Chief Information Officer