Grand Valley State University is replacing Banner, the software students use for financial aid, class planning, housing and credit documentation. These services are to be rolled over to a new platform, Workday Student.
GVSU already uses Workday as their enterprise management solution for student employment. Adding the new interface will streamline access for students who previously had to use multiple platforms. This platform will be launched incrementally over the course of the next two years with four primary launches. In 2026, a readiness review/mock session will be conducted to familiarize both students and staff with the platform. By the 2027-28 academic year, students will be able to register for classes through Workday.
The plan is part of the Reach Higher 2025 initiative, a strategy aimed at growth and promoting the University’s mission. There will be multiple items from Banner that will be streamlined and updated for Workday, including course sections, academic planning, external transcripts, financial aid and awards and payment precedence. GVSU claims Workday Student aims to enhance the student and staff experience while being easy to use.
GVSU claimed Cloud solutions like Workday are a more viable option for the future than the current Student Information System (SIS). According to a new University webpage, Banner is “high maintenance” and requires a large amount of on-site support resources. Other reasons listed that prompted the transition were product gaps, the need for custom tools, third-party integrations and data access limitations.
University Registrar Pam Wells emphasized that GVSU is doing everything it can to ensure the platform will be easily accessible for students. Currently, the team planning Workday Student is connecting with student groups to determine additional feedback and paths for increased involvement. She said feedback has already been utilized in both system design and plans for communications and training.
“We have had a number of students involved in the Workday Student project so far, and are actively seeking ways for students to be ever more involved going forward,” Wells said.
The University anticipates challenges with the transition. The move to Workday Student’s Academic Progress Report (APR), which will replace Banner’s degree-planning service MyPath, will impact students with certain degree requirements. Students in programs with complex class requirements may need to utilize custom reports in Workday to actually document progress toward graduation. This could lead to more advisors exerting effort to address APR functionality gaps.
Some students believe that Workday Student will not live up to its promise. First-year student Sammi Johnson is not looking forward to the change. In her few weeks at the University, she has been using Workday to apply for on-campus jobs, and finds the platform extremely “frustrating” and “annoying.”
“Workday is my biggest opp (opponent),” said Johnson. “I’ll be editing stuff, and it’ll make me re-input my resume. It doesn’t save your progress, and it makes you go through more verification steps than Banner.”
