Austin, TX – June 3 2026 – Watermark, the leading provider of educational intelligence solutions for higher education, kicked off its annual flagship conference, Watermark Engage. Reimagined as a fully virtual experience designed to reach clients in the manner most accessible for them, this event was the most highly-attended event in Watermark’s history.
Centering on the theme “Built for What’s Next,” Watermark unveiled groundbreaking new products, powered by AI, designed to combat manual workloads, bridge data silos, and prove student ROI:
- Watermark Currents: A powerful new capability within the Watermark Insights Hub that introduces natural language access to transform institutional data into academic action. Administrators can go beyond standard dashboards by asking cross-functional academic questions of their Watermark and SIS data to make rapid decisions confidently, and gain strategic clarity exactly when they need it.
- Watermark Academic Momentum: A new decision-support product for deans and academic leaders to get a pulse on where programs stand today and strategize for the future. This solution weaves together internal metrics, documents, and external labor market signals into a fast program health assessment, empowering deans to make quality, defensible decisions on where to invest, evolve, or restructure.
- Over 1000 enhancements to the Watermark Educational Impact Suite (EIS): Always evolving to meet the growing needs of higher education leaders, Watermark recapped several significant capabilities including the infusion of AI into Watermark Planning and Self Study and Faculty Success in the Assessment Catalyst Toolpack and CV imports respectively, shifting from data entry to measuring impact.
Celebrating the 2026 Client Award Winners
A core highlight was the presentation of the annual Client Awards, honoring institutions that have achieved remarkable institutional change and student outcomes:
- The Insights Award – Southeast Technical College: Recognized for transforming assessment from a compliance checklist into a living campus culture where data isn’t just collected, it’s championed and acted upon. Through peer-coaching, workshops and agile system design, faculty successfully close curriculum gaps based on system data to ensure graduates are entirely workforce-ready.
- The Innovation Award – Blue Ridge Community College (BRCC): Honored for their use of innovation and deep commitment to never letting a student fall through the cracks. This commitment was clear in the devastating aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene. As a core function of their campus operations, BRCC creatively pivoted Student Success & Engagement into their primary communication lifeline to maintain critical crisis response support when traditional channels failed.
- The Impact Award – Central Methodist University (CMU): Awarded for rapidly dismantling a fragmented, manual environment to free faculty and staff to focus on what matters most: their students. CMU created a connected, organized and transparent data-driven ecosystem, resulting in real-time, centralized data to make informed decisions with confidence. CMU has expanded their impact by serving as a national peer mentor to others, paving the way for similar outcomes at other institutions.
“Your mission is to ensure that student degrees deliver an education that truly prepares them for the future—and our mission is to prepare you,” said Erin Shy, CEO of Watermark. “We are here to empower internal assessments so institutions can invest where they are thriving, measure critical learning outcomes, and capture the faculty activities and field experiences that demonstrate true impact. Ultimately, we distill these insights so leaders can make well-informed decisions about institutional health. These are some of the most consequential choices in higher education right now, and they are happening whether leaders have good data or not. Our job is to ensure you never have to make them in the dark.”
To learn more about Watermark Currents, Watermark Academic Momentum, or more highlights from Engage 2026, please visit www.watermarkinsights.com.
Contact
Kate Kaczmarczik
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