UMass-Amherst’s online registration system crashed last week, causing headaches for the school’s 24,000 students.

Many students who had not yet registered for classes were unable to do so, and those who had were unable to find the locations of their classes.

“The last week has truly been difficult for the campus community,” said UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski.

UMass first began to experience difficulties with the system over the summer when PeopleSoft Inc. installed new registration software. The university system had previously used its own software until contracting out the job in hopes of improving services.

Soon after installing the new software, the system crashed several times, but university officials thought the problems had been resolved for fall registration.

When UMass students arrived on campus after Labor Day weekend and tried to sign up for classes, the system was unable to cope with the demand. Many students were initially denied any access, and when service was available, it was slow and sporadic.

Many confused students did not attend classes the first week thinking they had been canceled.

In order to prevent a system overload and allow students to register online, UMass blocked faculty access last Friday. Over the weekend, students and faculty reversed access privileges and faculty members were allowed access.

UMass has been working with PeopleSoft and an outside consultant to fix the software glitches. The system has stabilized over the past week, allowing students and faculty to use it, but it is still not running as smoothly as was hoped.

The school does not currently have plans to change registration systems or software.

“I’m not aware of any plans to change the registration system,” Blaguszewski said. “There is a large investment of time and training that goes into one of these systems. Such a change would require very serious consideration.”

Universities use a variety of different software programs to register students for classes.

Northeastern University built its own software instead of contracting with an outside company. The school has not had any major problems with online registration and although it is working to expand and improve its system, it does not intend on making changes specifically in light of the UMass registration issues.

“We don’t use the same system and haven’t faced that sort of problem, so we aren’t planning on making any changes,” said Northeastern Systems Manager David Thornton.

Boston University operates a different online registration system, according to spokesman Colin Riley. He said there are currently no plans to change BU’s online registration system.

“We are aware that systems need to be tested and run,” Riley said. “To my awareness, every change we’ve made to software here has gone very smoothly.”