Not myPlan

Last year UNSW unveiled myPlan, a degree progress and planner software introduced to make course planning easier for students. Originally rolled out over two tranches over the last few months, myPlan is now available for all current UNSW students who started their degree after 2019 and are not research or exchange students.

And it sucks.

myPlan is based on US company Stellic’s Pathways software, originally developed for Carnegie Mellon University. The software boasts that it can reduce “course mistakes and wasted credits” and “improve on-time graduation”, and of course advertises its “AI” features proudly. The software needed to be adapted from its original semester-based system to work with our trimester one. Such adaptation will quickly become redundant as UNSW moves back to semesters in 2028.

Upon opening myPlan for the first time, I was greeted with a page notifying me that I still had a number of credits left in my degree that I was not enrolled in. This information was incorrect, but it caused me to frantically load the handbook page for my program in order to check that I was not a whole term behind, panicking that I had messed up my courses. The experience of myPlan providing incorrect information is not unique, with people online reporting degree requirements not being listed, prerequisites for courses not being correctly listed, full courses appearing as available, and core courses being counted as electives.

The most common complaint about myPlan, however, is the convoluted and confusing user interface. The layout can be easily overwhelming to new users, with a large amount of information being presented on tiny split tabs and uninformative buttons with no explanatory tooltips. Quite frankly, it is just difficult to use.

It truly is faster, with less room for error, to simply plan out your degree with pen and paper or in a Google Doc, given that using myPlan requires you to cross-check with the handbook, timetabling site, and myUNSW for accurate information. Even in official communications about myPlan, UNSW urges students that “it is important that you cross-reference your myPlan progression with the handbook to ensure it reflects accurately”.

An interesting thing to note is that a UNSW degree progression and planning system existed well before myPlan. Circles is a software developed by the UNSW Computer Science and Engineering Society, created by UNSW students. Similar to myPlan, it allows students to pick courses, figure out prerequisites, fill out their planner and make sure all degree requirements are met. Its UI is much simpler compared to myPlan, and overall is much more intuitive. While issues exist in Circles, such as a limited number of degrees available to plan, I do not personally understand UNSW’s approach of purchasing a software from a fully external organisation that would require modification to function with our trimester system, over investing in UNSW students and their project that has helped many people over the years.

myPlan is a frustrating software. It does not improve upon the old methods of degree planning, only adding additional confusion and potentially misinformation. Its existence is confusing in itself. With UNSW pushing it as the best way to plan a degree, all we can hope is that it sees some improvements made in the future.