Moving Student Records to the Cloud: A Checklist for Colleges

Many colleges still run their student records on a server in a cupboard. It works, until the day it doesn’t. Moving to the cloud can mean fewer outages, easier remote access and less time spent on updates. But a records system holds some of the most sensitive data you have, so the move needs care.

Before you start

• Know your data. List what you hold, where it lives and who uses it: admissions, enrolments, attendance, results and safeguarding notes.
• Check data protection. Complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment and confirm where the supplier stores data and who can access it.
• Clean up first. Archive records you no longer need to keep under your retention policy. There’s no point migrating clutter.

Planning the migration

1. Choose a quiet window, ideally between terms
2. Run a trial migration and check a sample of records line by line
3. Agree how long the old system stays available in read-only mode
4. Plan how exam boards, funding returns and other systems will connect

The most common migration problem isn’t technical. It’s a report that someone relied on and nobody listed.

Security basics

Turn on two-factor sign-in for every staff account, give people access only to what their role needs, and make sure backups are tested by restoring them, not just by checking they exist.

The first term after go-live

Expect questions. Offer short drop-in sessions, a simple guide for each role and a clear way to report problems. Review what’s working after six weeks, and fix the small annoyances quickly: they shape how staff feel about the whole system.

If you’re planning a move, we’re happy to share our migration checklist in more detail.