Brown Drives Early Registration and Student Success with CourseLeaf

"Since the launch of PATH, the campus response has been overwhelmingly positive." 

- Robert Fitzgerald, University Registrar at Brown University

Students at Brown University were requesting the university provide a modern, accessible, and user-friendly interface for registration. Course information was spread across several web portals, which made finding complete and accurate information during the registration process difficult. Students attempted to create their own solutions, resulting in a wave of information and API requests to the registrar’s office.

“Our students didn’t like the Banner interface, so they tried to develop apps on their own,” said Rob Fitzgerald, the University Registrar.

Brown looked to CourseLeaf for a solution that would satisfy the diverse needs of its students, faculty, and staff. CourseLeaf PATH offered a better registration experience using modern mobile-friendly design to improve accessibility, visibility, and ease-of-use within an institutionally branded environment. By retiring the four existing systems, Brown would leverage PATH to integrate the data into a single unified user interface, requiring minimal long-term support costs. 

“We partnered with CourseLeaf rather than try to build something ourselves, so that we could integrate the Bulletin and Banner information and give students a modern, accessible, user interface that took a lot of their feedback into perspective,” said Fitzgerald.

CourseLeaf partnered with Brown to unify course and student data across systems, creating a more reliable and streamlined registration experience. By integrating multiple campus data sources into one central location, Brown improved course search, strengthened pre-flight registration validation, and delivered a smoother CART-to-registration workflow with fewer errors and less student confusion.

Using the SIS Transfer Package to connect PATH and Banner, Brown staff gained live visibility into key data needed to support cleaner enrollment outcomes.

Brown also enhanced course discovery through tools like Students Who Also Took and Promoted Courses, helping guide students toward relevant offerings and supporting enrollment goals. With Courses I Can Take, students could view only courses they were eligible to register for, further reducing friction and failed registration attempts.

Since the launch of PATH, the campus response has been overwhelmingly positive. Students are able to complete the registration process with minimal Banner interface interaction, and Brown has seen increases in early registration - an 18% rise sustained over four semesters.

“We think we are in a great state in terms of moving forward with PATH, so it’s been a win for us.”

Going forward, Brown is continuing to partner with CourseLeaf to streamline the registration process, creating efficiencies for the Registrar’s Office and students alike.

“We are looking forward to expanding the PATH product to fully implement the registration and add-drop-swap experience inside,” said Fitzgerald, “as well as help with server load issues that can sometimes present themselves in the ERP at peak periods.”