How HECVAT 4 Impacts Higher-Ed Marketing Vendors

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HECVAT

The Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) is a security questionnaire colleges use to assess vendor risk. It has increasingly become a standard vendor qualification requirement in higher education.

Developed collaboratively by EDUCAUSE, Internet2, and the Research and Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Center (REN-ISAC), HECVAT provides a common framework for vendor security assessments.

HECVAT 4 launched in early 2025 with new AI-specific questions that impact marketing vendors. Lead scoring algorithms, enrollment chatbots, and personalization tools now require detailed governance documentation.

HECVAT operates alongside marketing compliance requirements such as TCPA, FERPA, and state privacy laws, creating additional compliance layers for vendors.

Who Requires HECVAT

HECVAT is required for vendors handling student data, providing cloud services, or accessing campus networks. Marketing agencies, lead generation companies, CRM providers, and marketing automation platforms fall under these requirements.

Procurement departments integrate HECVAT into vendor qualification processes. IT security teams use the assessment to