FOLLOW THE STUDENT: Hobsons has acquired the National Transcript Center (NTC) from Pearson for an undisclosed price. According to the press release, NTC is "the world's largest e-transcript exchange provider, serving more than 137,000 institutions that represent more than 14 million students." Hobsons has dabbled in the academic documents space with its Naviance eDocs platform, but this deal will greatly expand upon the existing 1,800 colleges currently using that service. Hobsons is also considering working with the National Student Clearinghouse, a platform for degree and enrollment verification, "to develop a new standard for operating transcript networks." As student data becomes ever more plentiful and critical to measures of their success, questions over how data follow students through their careers, and who really "owns" it, will be at the forefront of discussions over education technology.
