The University of Texas System on Tuesday announced a $10 million deal with MyEdu, an online tool that helps students choose classes and professors and plot out degree plans.

UT officials want students to graduate faster, lowering the cost of a degree, and see the new service as an aid in accomplishing that.

“With millions of choices across degree programs and class schedules at each institution, college planning can be very complex,” said Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of the UT System.

Graduating in five or six years has become the norm at American universities, even elite flagships. At UT-Austin, only 52 percent of students graduate in four years, while 80 percent graduate within six years. Many students work part-time or change majors, lengthening the time to a degree; others lack one or two classes to graduate on time.

“Advisers call it senior surprise. Students discover late in their college career that they need a core course, or a really hard course, to graduate,” said Frank Lyman, vice president at MyEdu.

Bill Powers, president of UT, has set a goal of raising the four-year graduation rate to 70 percent, in part with better planning. In a time of tight budgets, an online tool is a cheaper alternative to hiring more advisers.

The $10 million will give the UT System a 22 percent stake in the company, making it an equity investor, said Barry Burgdorf, a lawyer for the UT System.

“There is a chance that if this goes well, we end up making money instead of paying money for the work,” Burgdorf said.

Students have shown demand for MyEdu; the company has 3 million users nationwide, including more than 80 percent of UT-Austin students.

The partnership will allow UT to offer a custom product, giving students complete official information about schedules and individual professors. MyEdu will pilot the product at the end of this year at UT-Austin, UT-Arlington and UT-Permian Basin before rolling it out to all nine universities next year.

When choosing classes, MyEdu gives students access to course times and places, as well as grade histories and professors' scores on student evaluations. They can also review professors the way they do at RateMyProfessors.com.

Lyman said MyEdu will moderate comments and exclude irrelevant information, such as a professor's “hotness,” a quality noted on RateMyProfessors.com with a chili pepper icon.

There's also a social networking function, somewhat akin to Facebook, where students can comment on classes and assignments.

When plotting out a degree plan, MyEdu will also help students factor in pre-existing credits and give options for transferring credits from other campuses, community colleges, or online classes.