Canva for Campus at UCT

Canva is a popular, cloud-based visual design and collaboration platform that is used to create visual materials. UCT has acquired Canva for Campus - a university-wide licence which gives staff and students access to premium templates, creative tools, and shared workspaces to support teaching, learning, and professional work. 

You can use Canva to create presentations, teaching materials, reports, infographics, videos, social media content, and more. The platform is intuitive and suitable for beginners and experienced users. 

What Canva for Campus offers 

Canva for Campus provides a comprehensive set of tools to help you work efficiently and produce high-quality content. 

Features:

• Access to premium templates, images, videos, and design elements.
• Real-time collaboration for teams and group projects.
• Shared folders and brand kits for consistency across departments.
• Tools for presentations, documents, whiteboards, videos, and visual communication.
• The ability to create, edit, review, and share work in one place. 

Canva supports both individual work and collaboration across teams. It helps to streamline your workflow by integrating with commonly used tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and learning management systems. 

You can use Canva across a wide range of contexts at the university, such as  

• developing teaching and learning materials
• communicating research
• supporting internal communications
• producing public-facing content.  

Students can also use it for everyday academic and creative work, including presentations, assignments, portfolios, CVs, and materials for student-led initiatives. 

Canva for Campus is available to all staff and students. It includes premium Canva features, along with additional capabilities designed for collaboration and institutional use.  

Comparison guide of Canva plans:

Access Canva for Campus 

Canva for Campus is available to all current UCT staff and students at no cost. Access is linked to your UCT account and uses Single Sign-On (SSO). 

Get started: 

1. Go to www.canva.com.
2. Enter your UCT email address.
3. Select Continue.
4. You will be redirected to the UCT login page.
5. Sign in using your UCT username and password.
6. Complete multi-factor authentication if prompted. 

Once signed in, you will automatically enter the UCT Canva environment, where you can begin creating and collaborating. 

You can access Canva through a web browser, as well as download the desktop application (Windows or macOS) and the mobile app. While Canva is primarily an online platform, you can make some designs available for offline editing. Any changes you make offline will sync when you reconnect to the internet. 

Your Canva workspace 

When you sign in to Canva using your UCT email address, you will enter the UCT Canva environment. This is your primary workspace for university-related activities, including  

• creating content
• accessing shared templates and folders
• collaborating with colleagues and fellow students 

You may also see other teams linked to your UCT email address. These could include departmental, faculty, or project-based workspaces that you already belong to. You can switch between these workspaces whenever needed. 

If you have a personal Canva account linked to a non-UCT email address, it will remain separate from your UCT Canva environment and will not appear alongside your UCT workspaces. To access your personal account, you will need to switch accounts. 

This arrangement helps you to keep university and personal work separate, while providing easy access to all your UCT-related workspaces from a single UCT account. 

Your existing Canva content 

If you already use Canva with your UCT email address, your existing designs, folders, and projects will remain available.  

They will stay in the workspace where they were originally created, and you can continue to access and use them as usual. You will also have access to the UCT Canva environment alongside your existing workspaces. 

Switch between Canva environments 

If you have access to more than one team, you can switch between them at any time, depending on where your work is stored. 

1. From the homepage, select your profile icon in the bottom left corner.
2. Under Teams, hover or select your current team.
3. Select the arrow right icon to see all teams you’re part of. The  check icon shows your current team.
4. Select the team you want to switch to. 

The team you select becomes your active workspace. Your designs will be saved there, so it’s important to check that you are in the correct environment before creating or sharing a design. 

Move your content into the UCT Canva environment 

You can move your existing designs into the UCT Canva environment gradually over time, depending on what you are working on. You do not need to transfer everything at once. 

There are two main ways to move your designs: 

If you want to move a design directly between teams you already belong to, copy it to the UCT environment. Using this method keeps the design fully editable within Canva. 

1. From the homepage side menu, select Projects.
2. Locate the design you want to move.
3. Select More actions on the design thumbnail.
4. Choose Copy to another team.
5. Select the UCT Canva environment.
6. Click Copy. 

Alternatively, if you want to create a separate file copy, download and upload your design. Using this method creates a separate version that you can store or reuse independently.: 

1. Open your design.
2. Select Share> Download.
3. Choose your preferred file format (e.g. PDF, PNG), then click Download and browse to a suitable folder on your device.
4. Switch to the UCT Canva environment.
5. Go to Uploads and upload the file you downloaded in step 3. 

Both options work well, depending on how you want to manage your content.  

Using a personal Canva account 

If you use Canva with a personal (non-UCT) email address, this account remains separate from your UCT account. This can be useful if you want to keep your university work and personal projects clearly separated. You can move between accounts at any time.  

Add and switch accounts 

1. Click your profile icon in the bottom left corner.
2. Select Accounts.
3. Choose + Add another account and sign in with your personal email address.
4. Switch between accounts by selecting the one you want to use. 

Move designs to a personal account 

If you want to transfer designs from your UCT account to your personal account, you can share the design and save a copy. 

1. In your UCT Canva account, go to Projects.
2. Find the design you want to move.
3. Select Share on the design.
4. Enter your personal email address and set permission to can edit.
5. Log in to your personal account.
6. Open the shared design.
7. In the editor, select File → Make a copy to save it. 

Pre-existing paid subscriptions 

If you already have a paid Canva subscription linked to your UCT email address, you won’t need to renew the subscription if you qualify for Canva for Campus, 

Please contact Canva Support to inform them that your paid account has moved into UCT’s new Canva enterprise agreement. They can assist with subscription adjustments or possible reimbursement, depending on your plan. 

Training and resources 

Canva provides a range of resources and built-in tools to help you learn new skills, find inspiration, and create content more efficiently. You can access many of these from the Canva homepage and side panel. 

• Design School offers tutorials, video lessons, and short courses covering topics such as design basics, presentations, branding, and visual communication.
• Work Kits offer collections of templates and practical resources designed to support activities such as teaching, training, presentations, and communication.
• Templates provide a quick starting point, with thousands of ready-made designs for presentations, videos, social media content, reports, posters, and more.
• Video Marketplace gives you access to video templates, stock footage, and editing tools to help you create engaging visual content.
• Apps allow you to connect Canva with other tools and add extra functionality to your projects.
• Content Planner supports social media planning by enabling you to create, schedule, and publish content across multiple platforms from within Canva.