UT students have free access to Canva Pro, a graphic design platform, as of Oct. 17 through a collaboration between the company, UT Enterprise Technology and the Senate for College Councils.Students can access their Canva Pro account by visiting the UT Canva sign-in page and logging in with their UT EID, according to the Enterprise Technology announcement.The pro version includes artificial intelligence tools, common professional website features and social media features, said Justin Belluccini, a product marketing mana...
UT students have free access to Canva Pro, a graphic design platform, as of Oct. 17 through a collaboration between the company, UT Enterprise Technology and the Senate for College Councils.
Students can access their Canva Pro account by visiting the UT Canva sign-in page and logging in with their UT EID, according to the Enterprise Technology announcement.
The pro version includes artificial intelligence tools, common professional website features and social media features, said Justin Belluccini, a product marketing manager for Canva. Students also have access to a UT Brand kit feature, which includes University colors and trademarks.
“With your Canva Pro subscription, you can use up to 140 million different elements,” Belluccini said. “Tools like AI features … as well as things like background remover, video background remover and even magic sort on whiteboards.”
Vaishnavi Penta, president of the Senate for College Councils, said the organization and Enterprise Technology first identified the need for a design platform last year. They originally wanted to bring Adobe to campus, but shifted to a more versatile program, said Penta, a Plan II and government senior.
Cole Camplese, vice president for technology and chief information officer for Enterprise Technology, said Canva Pro is intended to support the needs of diverse majors while lowering post-tuition costs.
“Whenever we have an opportunity, especially with a tool that really supports student workflow, we want to make sure that our contract and negotiations with them include the deepest discount possible for students,” Camplese said. “With Canva, it’s just been an absolute win-win.”
Before the platform went live, Camplese said hundreds of students were trying to access it.
“We had about 800 sign-ups in the first 30 minutes of the announcement,” Camplese said. “We actually save money the more students consume the product. We’re getting more bang for our buck.”
Ethan Thompson, vice president for the Senate of College Councils, said free access to Canva Pro could pave the way for future initiatives.
“We’re continuing to try to have conversations on how we can make Adobe Premiere more accessible,” said Thompson, a government and political communications junior. “We have so much change happening behind the doors right now, and we’re so excited to see what’s next.”