The University of California (UC) is excited to announce its partnership with Canva, the all-in-one visual communication platform with leading-edge visual communication and design tools. UC Santa Barbara staff & faculty members have access to discounted Canva Enterprise licenses, and current students have access to a Canva for Campus premium account. UCSB NetID log-in is required for all individuals who want to take advantage of the partnership.

To learn more, please review the FAQs below.
 

Benefits of Canva at UC Santa Barbara

All staff & faculty members will have access to the UC Santa Barbara brand kit which includes our university colors, fonts, wordmark, and more. Utilizing these elements will help ensure that your work meets brand standards. You'll also also have access to a suite of pre-built templates, designed for various channels, that will save you time in the creative process.

For a quick overview of of where to start in Canva, access the "Getting Started in Canva" tutorial.

brand colors in Canva

brand template in Canva

brand icons in Canva

Frequently Asked Questions

Review the questions and answers below to help ensure a smooth transition into your Canva workspace.

Accessing Canva - Faculty and Staff

  • Faculty and staff can order a Canva Enterprise license from the CDW-G catalog within Gateway, UC Santa Barbara's eProcurement purchasing platform.

    1. Log into Gateway.

    2. Select the CDW-G punch-out.

    3. Search for “Canva Campus Lic 1Y”

    4. Find the license associated with the current month, then select 'Add To Cart'.

    5. Select 'Check Out' to bring the cart back into Gateway.

    6. Uncheck the taxable flag.

    7. Assign the cart to a Requester in your department. If you do not know the Gateway Requesters in your department, your Department Purchasing Administrator can assist you.

  • Each department will pay for their own licenses, whether for individual users or when purchasing as a group.
  • UC-negotiated annual rate = $94/user license (regular rate = $120/year)
  • Licenses purchased beginning in July 2024 will run through the FY25.
  • Orders placed after July will be pro-rated to the fiscal year.
  • Users purchasing a license will have the option to renew each July.
  • There are no free licenses for faculty or staff (or Admins), but the new UC-negotiated rate of $94/user/year offers great overall savings for campuses with existing paid licenses.
     
  • Canva & CDW-G are aiming for a two-day (2-day) provisioning window, but this timeframe may be slightly longer during the initial months due to order volume.
  • This timing may improve after the first few months as the volume of orders evens out.
     

With their license purchase, staff and faculty users will access Canva using their Single-Sign-On (SSO) UCSB NetID credentials. New users will receive a welcome email from Canva with instructions and resources for using their new account.

Accessing Canva - Students

  • Students can access their free Canva for Campus premium account for the first time by visiting the UC Santa Barbara Canva log-in page and entering their UCSB NetID credentials. You will automatically gain access to your free student Canva for Campus premium account using that link. As an alternative, students can visit https://www.canva.com/login/, select 'Continue with email', and enter their ucsb.edu email address.

Managing / Migrating Existing Accounts

  • Existing users won’t automatically be redirected to SSO but can still access Canva how they did previously. However, they are strongly encouraged to sign up for a new Canva Enterprise account at the lower user rate of $94/user/year.
  • Canva will refund the remainder of prepaid Pro licenses, but those users will have to move their designs over to the new account using these instructions.
  • Anyone with an existing paid Canva license will still have access to the teams they had access to before switching over to a new UC account.
     

Yes, existing UC Canva users will be able to seamlessly transfer designs over from one team to another using these instructions from the Canva Help Center: Copy designs or files to another team or account

  • When students graduate, they will lose access to their university email as well as access to their free Canva for Campus account.
  • Graduates can export their designs by copy/paste into a personal account using these instructions from the Canva Help Center: Copying designs or files before graduating

Support Services / Communications

Canva lets you collaborate with anyone right away. You can share a link that lets anyone edit your design, no sign-in required using these instructions from the Canva Help Center: How to collaborate with anyone

  • For general Canva usage and feature support, users should use the Canva Help Center. This resource houses thousands of help articles that will answer most Canva questions.
  • Users can go to the Canva Support Team for suspected bug/functionality issues by submitting a support ticket through our Canva Help Center under the "Solve your issue" link. Submitted tickets are usually answered within 24 hours unless it is submitted over a weekend.
  • Users can go to their Campus Helpdesk for SSO login issues.
  • Student user support will be available directly from within the Canva platform.
  • Canva notifications will come from the email: UC@canva.com
  • This email will be used to notify users of account activation confirmation or for outreach to current Canva users.
     

Staff & Faculty License Info Student License Info Canva Help Center