When Anthology filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2025, higher education leaders across the country began re-evaluating their technology ecosystems. With portions of Anthology’s product suite expected to be sold to multiple buyers, many institutions are asking a critical question: How can we ensure the continuity, stability, and growth of our institutional technology in the years ahead?
At Watermark, we believe your technology should empower progress, not introduce uncertainty. Here’s what higher education institutions need to know about Anthology’s restructuring, the potential risks ahead, and why Watermark remains the trusted, future-ready partner for assessment, accreditation, and faculty success.
What happened: A quick recap of Anthology’s bankruptcy protection filing
FThe traditional focus on four-year degrees as the sole driver of success haOn September 29, 2025, Anthology Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing unsustainable debt obligations and declining revenue. The company’s restructuring plan splits its operations into multiple divisions:
- Teaching & Learning (Blackboard Learn, Ally, Illuminate) will remain under the restructured Anthology/Blackboard entity.
- Enterprise Operations (Student Information Systems, Finance & HR systems) is expected to be sold to Ellucian Company LLC.
- Lifecycle Engagement (Reach, Raise, Encompass, Engage, and other student success tools) is slated for sale to Encoura, LLC.
For many institutions, this means the products they rely on today may soon be owned and operated by entirely different companies, each with its own strategy, leadership, and support model.
The real impact on higher ed institutions
While Anthology assures customers of business continuity, restructuring of this scale almost always comes with disruption:
- Uncertain support: Up to 30% of existing staff may not transition to new ownership, according to Encoura’s bid that includes an agreement for Encoura to offer employment to at least 70% of employees.
- Disruption to existing staff: Higher pressure and potentially new or changed demands on remaining staff
- Feature freeze: Innovation and development typically slow or stop during bankruptcy and transfer of ownership.
- Contract renegotiations: Customers may face new pricing, contract terms, or required migrations.
- Integration risk: Products moving to different parent companies like Ellucian and Encoura could lose interoperability over time.
- Continued investment risk: For products remaining under the restructured entity (like many Institutional Effectiveness tools), the filing does not erase the years of underinvestment that led to the bankruptcy. Customers may face a prolonged ‘wait-and-see’ period as the new leadership focuses primarily on financial stabilization, delaying the promised innovation and roadmap delivery.
Higher education leaders can’t afford to wait and see. These changes could impact student data management, accreditation workflows, and faculty evaluation cycles if not planned for proactively.
Why stability matters in accreditation, assessment, and faculty success
While the market shifts around them, higher education institutions must still meet critical deadlines for accreditation, assessment reporting, faculty review and overall institutional effectiveness — all of which require a stable, connected technology ecosystem. We understand that many institutions have lived through the uncertainty of vendor consolidation. Watermark has intentionally built a stable, singular focus on institutional effectiveness for over 25 years, ensuring our partners benefit from mature, mission-driven stability.
With Watermark, institutions can:
- Maintain continuity with a proven, financially stable partner.
- Connect faculty success, student learning, and institutional planning in one ecosystem.
- Access dedicated support teams with 98% customer satisfaction ratings.
- Benefit from over 400 annual product enhancements informed by real customer feedback.
- Maintain continuity with a proven, financially stable partner.
- Connect faculty success, student learning, and institutional planning in one ecosystem.
- Access dedicated support teams with 98% customer satisfaction ratings.
- Benefit from over 400 annual product enhancements informed by real customer feedback.
Watermark isn’t just another vendor, we’re a long-term partner committed to advancing the mission of higher education.
Key comparison: Anthology vs. Watermark
Why Watermark stands apart
- Proven stability and experience
- Watermark has been a trusted partner to more than 1,500 institutions worldwide. Our solutions have evolved in response to user needs and alongside accreditation standards, ensuring institutions can effectively showcase their quality and value to programmatic and institutional accreditors and other compliance bodies. We are continuously reinvesting in product innovation and support.
- Responsible, connected innovation
- We solve real higher education challenges. Watermark’s roadmap and responsible AI strategy ensures every new capability, like Instructor Insights in Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys and the Assessment Catalyst Toolpack coming soon to Watermark Planning & Self-Study, enhances transparency, saves time, and empowers human decision-making.
- Seamless integration across campus
- Our products integrate with your SIS, LMS, and with each other, creating a single source of truth for efficiency and data transparency. Whether you manage assessment cycles, accreditation self-studies, course evaluations, or faculty dossiers, Watermark ensures your data flows securely and reliably across systems.
- Dedicated implementation and support
- With average response times of less than an hour, our implementation and support teams work directly with you to ensure smooth onboarding, timely answers, and proactive success planning. Our customers consistently rate our support as excellent and our clients stay with us because we deliver.
Making the switch: migration without disruption
Transitioning from a legacy or at-risk platform can feel daunting, but Watermark makes it simple. Our proven onboarding process ensures a smooth migration without disruption to ongoing institutional operations.
Our migration process includes:
- Dedicated implementation managers and technical specialists.
- Support for data transfer from Anthology, Blackboard, or other legacy systems.
- Guided setup of integrations with your LMS and SIS.
- Comprehensive training and customer success planning.
With clear timelines, transparent communication, and tailored support, Watermark ensures your team can maintain momentum through every step of the transition.
Watermark helps institutions move beyond anecdotal evidence by connecting program goals, student learning, and post-graduate outcomes. Our data collection and planning solutions help leadership teams make informed decisions about:
- Which programs justify their high-cost structure and deliver the best program ROI.
- How to adjust curriculum to align with AI and critical workforce trends.
- The evidence required for accreditation to prove economic impact and student success.
Discover how data-informed insights from Watermark can align your educational pathways with the true demands of the economic mobility ladder.
| Watermark Solution / Area | Anthology Solution / Area (or Former Name) | Primary Function |
|---|---|---|
| Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys | Anthology Evaluate | Course Evaluation & Feedback – Collecting and analyzing student feedback on courses and instructors. |
| Watermark Planning & Self-Study | Anthology Planning | Planning & Institutional Effectiveness – Managing multi-year strategic plans, aligning unit and department goals, and tracking progress toward those goals. |
| Anthology Accreditation | External Compliance & Reporting: Organizing evidence, mapping institutional goals to accreditor standards (like SACSCOC), and generating the final self-study report. | |
| Anthology Program Review | Internal Effectiveness & Improvement: Centralizing the annual or cyclical review of academic and co-curricular programs, often leveraging CAS Standards (Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education). | |
| Anthology Outcomes | Curriculum mapping: Visually demonstrating where (in which courses/sections) outcomes are being taught and assessed. Data aggregation and analysis of assessment results: Rolling up course-level assessment scores into program-level and institutional reports. |
|
| Watermark Student Learning & Licensure | Anthology Outcomes | Learning Outcome Assessment – Collecting, managing, and aggregating direct evidence of student learning (e.g., signature assignments) from course-level to institutional-level outcomes. |
| Anthology Portfolio | Assessment & E-Portfolios – Collecting, managing, and assessing student work (e-portfolios) for program-level and general education outcomes. | |
| Watermark Student Success & Engagement | Anthology Beacon and Anthology Engage | Student Success & Retention – Identifying at-risk students, advising coordination, and managing campus-wide engagement activities. |
| Watermark Educational Impact Suite (EIS) | Anthology Illuminate (Data/Analytics) | Data & Institutional Intelligence – The overarching platform for connecting data across various campus systems for reporting and continuous improvement. |
A trusted partner for the long term
As other vendors restructure or consolidate, Watermark continues to grow through collaboration, innovation, and trust. We’re proud to serve institutions that value mission-driven partnership, data transparency, and student-centered outcomes.
When you choose Watermark, you’re not just selecting software, you’re investing in a platform built to evolve with higher education’s future.
The bottom line
Anthology’s restructuring is causing disruptions for many colleges and universities. Institutions relying on its tools face growing uncertainty around support, innovation, and integration.
Luckily, Watermark offers a path forward grounded in trust, stability, and a shared mission to improve outcomes for students and faculty alike. With our connected platform, dedicated support, and proven success across accreditation, assessment, and faculty advancement, your institution can move forward with confidence.
