UCS@school 5.2 – Even More Powerful with UCS 5.2

With the release of UCS@school 5.2, we are taking the next big step in digital school IT! Our education platform offers school authorities a powerful, central Identity & Access Management (IAM) that is easy to manage and enables the integration of proven IT services. This provides optimum support for digital teaching and simplifies many school processes. With this release, all educational institutions benefit from the numerous improvements that UCS 5.2 has to offer.

The release 5.2 of Univention Corporate Server (UCS), which was published on February 5, 2025, brings numerous improvements and modernizations. These include, among others:

• Keycloak as a new, powerful identity provider that enables modern single sign-on (SSO) and offers more flexibility in authentication procedures.
• Updating the system base to Debian 12 “Bookworm”, making UCS more stable and secure and able to cope with future requirements.
• Switch to Python 3.11 for better performance and long-term maintainability.
• Modernization of the web interface for even more intuitive usability.
• Improved input validation in the Univention Config Registry (UCR) to avoid misconfigurations.

Further feature highlights can be found in our blog article on the UCS 5.2 release.

In addition to full compatibility with UCS 5.2, UCS@school 5.2 also includes further optimizations and bug fixes:

• Ensuring valid usernames: By default, the system now checks that user names do not violate any Windows naming conventions. This prevents later problems with Microsoft clients. Invalid user names are now displayed as critical errors in the system diagnostics tool.
• Revision of the class work mode: Shell hooks have been removed, instead Python hooks can be used on the Primary Directory Node.
• Fix for print moderation: An error that caused the “Printer Operators” group to enter an incorrect state after join script execution has been fixed.

UCS@school 5.2 is now available and can be installed. With this release, UCS@school 5.0 enters the maintenance phase and new functions will only be available for version UCS@school 5.2 in the future. The general maintenance of UCS@school 5.0 will end in March 2026 at the earliest.

A complete list of all changes, bug fixes and improvements can be found in our detailed changelogs and our help article.

On April 14, 16 and 23, we invite you to our webcast, in which we will present the most important new features and give you valuable tips on installation. Find out how you can benefit from the new functions and what you should bear in mind when updating.

Register for the webcast here

We are continuously working on making UCS@school even better. In the coming weeks, we will be focusing on compatibility with other important apps for UCS@school from our Univention App Center:

• The Kelvin API will be made compatible with UCS@school 5.2, providing a flexible interface for identity management.
• We are updating the Veyon Proxy App so that computer monitoring can be used smoothly under UCS@school 5.2.
• We ensure that the ID Connector and ID Broker work seamlessly with UCS@school 5.2 to enable secure and easy identity management across different platforms.
• We are extending support for key applications such as Apple School Manager Connector under UCS@school 5.2.