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What is the HECVAT?
By The Citesheet team · Published
Short answer
The HECVAT (Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit) is a security questionnaire published by EDUCAUSE for US higher education. Colleges and universities send it to vendors as an Excel workbook. Version 4, announced in February 2025, merged the old Full, Lite and On-Prem versions into one workbook and added questions about AI.
The HECVAT (Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit) is a security questionnaire published by EDUCAUSE, the association for IT in US higher education. Colleges and universities send it to software vendors so that every vendor answers the same questions in the same workbook.
HECVAT 4
EDUCAUSE announced HECVAT 4 in February 2025. According to Campus Technology:
- the Full, Lite and On-Prem versions were combined into one file that guides vendors to the questions that apply to their product
- AI-specific questions were added
- institutions can choose which categories count toward a product's score
What it means for a vendor
The workbook's routing questions decide which sections you answer, so read them carefully. A completed HECVAT is often reusable with other institutions. Our HECVAT 4 guide for vendors walks through it step by step.