Educause pushes Ed. Dept. to rethink ‘third-party servicer’ guidance
Lindsay McKenzie
March 20, 2023
Educause is continuing to press the U.S. Department of Education to revise its oversight of edtech providers.
Educause is continuing to work with its institutional members and other higher education organizations to get the U.S. Department of Education to reconsider its recent guidance on ‘third-party servicers,’ according to an update the higher ed IT organization shared last week.
The department’s guidance, in the form of a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter last month, was intended to expand the department’s oversight of online program management companies by classing them as ‘third-party servicers’ — a category of organizations that are required to report details of their business dealings with colleges and universities.
The department’s definition of ‘third-party servicers’ is now so broad, however, that it could be interpreted to cover any provider offering educational content, services, software or systems to higher education institutions. This could create “unnecessary burdens for higher education institutions and their providers,” Jarret Cummings, Educause’s senior adviser for policy and government relations, wrote last week in Educause Review.
