MortarCAPS November Community Update

_From Charlsey Pearce, CEO, MortarCAPS  _ In Photo: Gemma Williams [Head of Business Operations, MortarCAPS] (Left), Charlsey Pearce [CEO, MortarCAPS] (Centre), and Andrew Mulcahy [CTO, MortarCAPS] (Right) @ The Study NSW Awards 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

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