From Charlsey Pearce, CEO, MortarCAPS
As we close out 2025, I want to thank every member of the MCDS Community for the extraordinary commitment, collaboration, and creativity that have brought the MortarCAPS Higher Learning Data Standard to life.
What began as a framework is now a living, evolving foundation for how our sector connects — and together, we’ve made this a movement.
🏛 Sector Milestones — A Year of Growth and Recognition
The November MortarCAPS Town Hall marked our final sector gathering for 2025 — and what a year it’s been. From cross-continental working groups to new partner collaborations, the MCDS ecosystem has grown in both reach and impact.
This month, the community also celebrated national recognition, with MortarCAPS awarded the Innovation in Education Award at the Study NSW International Education Awards.
This achievement reflects the collective effort of institutions, partners, and sector leaders who continue to shape a smarter, more connected future for tertiary education.
Missed the session? You can check it out here to watch the full recording and explore highlights from the day.
🌏 MCDS V1.3 — Building the Next Evolution
The community received an early update on the V1.3 development roadmap, which will expand the MCDS to include:
- Financials, HR, and Research Administration schemas
- Enhanced support for aggregated reporting and version management
- Strengthened governance structures for long-term interoperability
Institutions across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are already contributing use cases and validation feedback through working groups and SharePoint collaboration hubs — ensuring V1.3 continues to reflect real institutional needs.
💡 Partner Highlights — From Demos to Deployment
November’s Town Hall showcased how MortarCAPS partners are turning interoperability from concept to reality:
- AWS introduced an upcoming MCDS Activation Program to help institutions assess data-governance maturity, identify pilot use cases, and deploy reference architectures through the AWS ecosystem.
- Workato unveiled a data translation and orchestration prototype capable of transforming student, staff, and course data across multiple systems — reducing manual mapping and enabling faster adoption of MCDS.
- KPMG Australia shared their excitement to join the MCDS community in the coming weeks.
- TechnologyOne provided updates on embedding MCDS capability within OneEducation, helping institutions simplify data flows and strengthen interoperability.
- Salesforce reaffirmed its commitment to a connected learner journey through Education Cloud, announcing the release of MortarCAPS into the Education Cloud ecosystem in October 2026.
Together, these collaborations demonstrate how sector innovation is moving from pilots to production — delivering tangible results across institutions.
🎓 Human Capability Record (HCR) — Shaping the Future of Lifelong Learning
Following the HCR Ideation Workshop, held in partnership with HEDx, the sector continues its exploration of the Human Capability Record at the upcoming HEDx event on 2 December — ideating a learner-controlled, portable framework that connects capability, consent, and opportunity.
Participants across government, academia, and industry are encouraged to join the next phase, focusing on:
- Design principles for portable, consent-driven capability records
- Pilot pathways linking higher education and employers
- Integration with Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) framework
Outcomes from these sessions will inform a joint White Paper submission to government, ensuring the sector leads the national conversation on trusted, interoperable capability data.
To participate, contact charlsey.pearce@mortarcaps.org.
🧩 Community Working Groups — Progress Across the Network
MCDS Working Groups continue to advance critical components of the data standard across regions:
- Design (AU/NZ & Canada): schema extensions for reporting and timetabling, and improved interoperability for financial data.
- Research Administration: mapping the research lifecycle and identifying key data touchpoints across systems.
- PLAR & HCR: refining distinctions between awards, qualifications, and results to strengthen learner achievement representation.
Each discussion contributes to a single goal — enabling seamless, standards-driven data exchange across institutions and borders.
🔮 Looking Ahead to 2026
As the MortarCAPS community prepares for 2026, priorities are clear:
- Scale pilots in interoperability and capability data
- Advance ethical AI and governance alignment across the sector
- Deepen international collaboration through shared standards and artefacts
We’ve achieved a great deal together — and next year will see even greater strides toward a truly connected, learner-first data ecosystem.
📩 Stay Connected
Join the MCDS movement:
- Participate in a Working Group (click here)
- Share reference architectures via SharePoint
- Request InfoCAPS access or pilot collaboration via Info@mortarCAPS
Together, we’re defining 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.