UBC kicked off the Integrated Renewal Program in November 2017; the HR and finance modules went live on November 2, 2020. This began our journey to expand our capabilities and sustain our new systems and ways of working. As the next step on this journey, in June 2021, the UBC Board of Governors approved the Integrated Renewal Program – Student, which is committed to supporting the institution’s academic mission and student success.

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Workday Student is the name of UBC’s new student information system. This term not only includes the Workday component but also refers to point solutions and the greater student ecosystem.  

Workday Student is comprised of 2 launches:

• Launch 1 – Initiate – occurs in October/November 2023. Launch 1 initiates the system that will first be used by Faculty and Staff to prepare for the 2024W sessions.  
• Launch 2 – Activate – begins in February/March 2024 for Faculty, Staff, and Students to prepare for 24W registration, which will be available June 2024, and where remaining functionality becomes available, to be used throughout the upcoming academic year.

After each launch, there is a Hypercare phase that will continue based on need. Hypercare is a period of time where additional dedicated resources are available to troubleshoot issues that arise and support the community through the transition to the new system. As of Launch 1 in October 2023 to September 2024, Classic SIS and Workday Student will run in parallel, meaning both systems will be live and in use; this is known as the Coexistence Period. The Classic SIS will be processing, supporting, and finishing the 24S session, and Workday Student will be used for all things 24W. By fall 2024, the entire new student information system will be launched. From there, the focus will be on sustainment and continuous improvement of Workday Student through the IRP Student Completion, so it is optimized to grow with UBC for years to come. 

Implementation Stages

To implement the Integrated Renewal Program – Student, UBC will generally follow a unified implementation methodology (UIM) based on Workday’s implementation framework. The UIM, which is aligned with the UBC project management framework, was adopted by the Integrated Renewal Program - Student Team. The methodology was designed to ensure clarity in and open communication of the deliverables and release dates across the UBC community. 

One-Program Approach

To support its successful implementation, the Integrated Renewal Program has been restructured to leverage lessons learned from the HR/finance Release 1 initiative. This led to a one-program approach, which combines the Integrated Renewal Program (IRP), Application Ecosystem Program (AEP) and Integration Enablement Centre (IEC) into a single cross-functional team known as the Integrated Renewal Program – Student (IRP Student). The program and the University will benefit from this streamlined approach.

Deployment Plan

The IRP Student implementation schedule considers UBC’s academic and fiscal timelines so that disruptions to student, faculty and staff services and operations are minimized. The implementation dates also reflect data and system of record considerations and time needed to gradually transition the UBC community through this change, as well as higher education student system implementation best practices.