October 2025 Edition
From Charlsey Pearce, CEO of MortarCAPS
In photo: Jamie Burrage [GM, Engineers Australia] (Left), Charlsey Pearce [CEO, MortarCAPS] (Centre), Ian Oppermann [Commonwealth Data Standards Chair] (Right) @ The CDR Workshop
As we move into the final quarter of 2025, momentum across the MortarCAPS community has shifted from design to delivery.
This month marked several milestones — the release of MCDS V1.2, strong partner-led demonstrations, and cross-sector collaboration through the Consumer Data Right (CDR) Workshop hosted at AWS Sydney.
The result is a community not only building a data standard but proving how interoperability, shared governance, and learner-centred design can reshape the higher education landscape.
🌏 Global Collaboration in Action
More than one hundred institutions across Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are now connected through the MortarCAPS MCDS SharePoint network — contributing artefacts, schemas, and working examples to a growing open repository.
Working groups in Standard Design, Architecture, PLAR/HCR, TechnologyOne, Salesforce, and AWS continue to meet weekly, advancing critical components of the standard.
Recent work includes:
- Finalising schema improvements across assessment rubrics and data concerns.
- Strengthening address handling and governance mechanisms for sensitive data.
- Extending cross-domain models to better link people, roles, and institutional hierarchies.
New calls for participation have been issued for Analytics, Research Administration, and HR validation, inviting experts from across the sector to shape upcoming schema models and align future releases to institutional needs.
This collaborative rhythm — built on peer review, sector transparency, and joint authorship — remains the core strength of the MortarCAPS initiative.
Partner Highlights
October’s Town Hall placed a spotlight on how MortarCAPS partners are turning interoperability from principle into practice.
AWS showcased InfoCAPS, a live visual interface that allows institutions to explore the MCDS framework in action. By making data relationships visible and navigable, InfoCAPS supports better governance, auditability, and understanding of data flow across domains.
Workato began work on a Community Integration Accelerator, designed to simplify MCDS implementation and reduce time-to-adoption for the ANZ Credit Management Initiative. This accelerator will help institutions automate data orchestration between My eQuals, student information systems, and partner tools.
Ingenuity’s Playbook was released as a practical guide to implementing the MortarCAPS Higher Learning Data Standard (MCDS). It provides universities with clear steps, readiness insights, and frameworks to support smooth adoption of the standard across systems and teams.
Cenote Solutions unveiled Student Pulse, a connected engagement dashboard showing how data standardisation can support 360° insights into learner behaviour, support needs, and wellbeing indicators.
These partner-led initiatives show a community maturing together — where interoperability is not an aspiration but an active, demonstrable reality.
🧭 CDR Workshop — Shaping the Future of Tertiary Data
The Consumer Data Right (CDR) Workshop, hosted by Ian Oppermann and Naomi Gilbert at AWS Sydney, gathered more than ninety participants from government, tertiary education, and technology.
Facilitated discussions explored how Human Capability Records (HCRs) — learner-controlled, portable data structures — can enable secure, consent-driven sharing of skills and qualifications.
Consensus emerged around several key principles:
- Consent and Portability: Data sharing should remain voluntary, time-limited, and transparent to learners.
- Shared Stewardship: The sector leads co-design, with government providing policy guardrails.
- Privacy by Design: All frameworks align with Australia’s emerging digital identity standards.
The workshop outcomes will inform a white paper submission to government in partnership with HEDx, institutions, and industry, continuing at the HEDx Ideation Workshop on 5 November.
Institutions interested in contributing use cases or participating in pilot discussions are encouraged to connect with MortarCAPS.
🏛 Sector Partnerships
MortarCAPS selected to deliver sector-wide Data Service for Credit Management
The ANZ Credit Management Initiative, under the auspices of My eQuals, has completed an RFP and selected MortarCAPS to advance the sector-wide Data Service to the next phase (subject to funding), leveraging the MortarCAPS data standard as the foundation for a smarter, scalable solution.
Why it matters: current credit management is clunky, inconsistent, and far too manual. Institutions struggle to keep databases current, while learners face delays and confusion. A sector-wide Credit Management System (CrMS) will change that — delivering faster, consistent, learner-centric credit outcomes through a shared precedent database, AI-assisted maintenance, and strong governance that balances collaboration with institutional autonomy.
👉 Stay tuned for next steps.
🎯 Sector Milestones and What’s Next
MCDS V1.2 Released
The release of Version 1.2 represents a significant step forward for the MortarCAPS Higher Learning Data Standard.
This update refines several foundational components, including:
- Assessment Rubrics — for structured, comparable evaluation across systems.
- Controlled Additional Properties — allowing flexibility without compromising standardisation.
- Data Concerns Schema — a mechanism for tagging data sensitivity, consent, and quality flags.
- Service Restrictions — supporting compliance and operational control at scale.
Together, these additions improve the reliability and interoperability of cross-border data sharing between institutions.
V1.3 Development Underway
Design work has already begun on Version 1.3, focusing on Financials, HR, and Research Administration. These streams are being co-developed with Research Alliances Canada and the ARDC, ensuring alignment between institutional operations and international data standards.
University of Toronto Case Study
Early comparisons demonstrate how adopting the MCDS framework can improve standardisation and data reusability within institutional systems — a positive signal for future scalability and adoption across regions.
🗓 Town Hall — October 2025
This month’s Town Hall brought together the MortarCAPS community for live demonstrations, roadmap updates, and sector announcements.
Agenda highlights included:
- MCDS overview and roadmap update — where we are and what’s next
- ANZ Credit Management Initiative — governance progress and next steps
- “Shaping the Future of Tertiary Education” workshop summary
- Partner demonstrations from Workato, Ingenuity’s Playbook, Cenote Demo, AWS Demo
- Member announcement: HoSA
- InfoCAPS demo and access information
- V1.2 walkthrough and live Q&A
🎥 Missed the session? Check it out here to watch the full recording.
📩 Get Involved
The MortarCAPS Higher Learning Data Standard continues to evolve through the collective effort of institutions, sector bodies, and partners.
You can:
- Join a working group in Research Admin, HR, or Analytics (join us!)
- Contribute artefacts and documentation to the MCDS SharePoint
Request access to InfoCAPS or express interest in upcoming pilots (Click here)
🍿That’s All Folks!
Together, we are building a smarter, fairer, learner-first data future.
Cheers,
Charlsey Pearce
CEO
MortarCAPS
Want to get involved?
Help shape the future of higher ed data by joining a working group or piloting MCDS.