What We Learned at Ellucian Live 2026

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Something felt different in Denver this year. The questions people were asking at Ellucian Live 2026 had shifted. A year ago, institutions wanted to know what SaaS was. This year, they wanted to know how to get there.

SIG’s team who walked the conference floor share what actually mattered. That includes Ellucian Student — the biggest product announcement of the week and genuinely more than a rebrand. It’s a rethinking of how the Banner and Colleague ERP gets delivered, with AI woven in at a deeper level than most people expected. The Ellucian Knowledge Graph deserves attention too: it’s the infrastructure behind an “ask, assist, delegate” model that keeps humans in the loop while cutting down time spent on routine tasks.

SaaS migration dominated the conversation. Not the “should we?” debate, but the “how do we get started?” one. Institutions are treating it as a campus-wide change initiative, not just an IT project, and the ones moving fastest are the ones with strong executive sponsorship and clear governance.

SIG breaks down the financial aid picture, which is moving fast. The regulatory changes tied to the reconciliation bill aren’t waiting for anyone, and Ellucian’s Banner and Colleague guidance is still catching up.

If you couldn’t make it to Denver, this is the honest debrief.