Guidance on Figma Education Account Verification for Harvard Extension School Course

Hello Figma Community,

I am writing on behalf of the User Experience Engineering course at Harvard Extension School:
https://coursebrowser.dce.harvard.edu/course/user-experience-engineering/

We have used Figma in this course for many years and have found it to be a great fit for teaching UX concepts. The course serves a diverse group of students, many of whom go on to transition into UX roles after completing it, and we have truly valued being able to rely on Figma as part of the curriculum.

This year, however, we have encountered ongoing challenges with Education account upgrades, even though the course is a legitimate, long-running academic offering. Because of these difficulties, we have had to make Figma an optional tool this term and allow students to choose alternative tools so they can continue completing coursework without delays.

At the moment, many students are working on the Figma Free plan, and we are trying to ensure they can still successfully complete a prototyping-focused assignment. We use a shared course template, which adds some additional constraints when students are not able to upgrade.

We would greatly appreciate advice from the community on the following:

1. What is the recommended workaround for students using the Figma Free plan, especially when working from a shared template?

2. Are there any free tools you would recommend that could reasonably substitute for Figma for a basic prototyping assignment, if students are unable to upgrade?

Our goal is to provide students with a smooth learning experience while we continue trying to resolve the account upgrade issues. Any guidance, suggestions, or shared experiences would be very helpful.

Thank you very much for your time and for supporting educators in the community.

Best regards,
Jane
User Experience Engineering
Harvard Extension School

Hello Figma Support Team,

I am writing on behalf of the User Experience Engineering course at Harvard Extension School.

We have used Figma in this course for many years, and it has played an important role in our students’ learning experience. The course serves a diverse audience, and many students go on to transition into UX roles after completing it. Over the years, we have truly appreciated being able to incorporate Figma into our curriculum.

This year, we have encountered some unexpected challenges with Figma Education account upgrades for both students and teaching staff. As a result, we have had to adjust how we support students in the course, and we are hoping to better understand how to navigate the current verification process.

Student enrollment structure at Harvard Extension School

At Harvard Extension School, students are not issued an official harvard.edu email address until they are formally admitted into a degree program. Admission itself requires the successful completion of three courses as a prerequisite.

Because of this structure, many students in this course are:

• Fully enrolled and paying students

• Taking the course prior to formal program admission

• Not yet issued a Harvard email address

In previous years, students in this situation were generally able to upgrade to Figma Education. This year, however, many of those attempts have been unsuccessful.

Challenges with Harvard-issued accounts

We have also seen verification difficulties for some students and instructors who do have harvard.edu email addresses, including members of the teaching staff. These issues were not typical in prior years and have added some additional complexity.

Request for guidance

We would greatly appreciate your guidance on the following:

1. Is there a recommended approach for verifying students who are legitimately enrolled but do not yet have a Harvard-issued email address?

2. Would it be possible to connect with someone at Figma to discuss this situation in more detail?

3. Is there an option for manual or bulk verification if enrollment confirmation can be provided?

We would love to continue using Figma as part of this course if possible. At the same time, we want to ensure a smooth and accessible experience for students, so we are exploring different approaches while we work through these account access challenges.

Thank you very much for your time and support. We truly appreciate any guidance you can share and would welcome the opportunity to work together on a solution.

Hi Jane - thank you for inquiring. I saw that you have a couple of duplicate topics regarding this, and that Tom had help you out here.

I have merged the other topics into this one, and will close this topic out since this was addressed by Tom in the thread linked above. That way, we can make sure we don’t accidentally overlap.

If you have any additional questions outside of this one, please feel free to create a new topic. Thank you!