Higher education GRC, for decentralized campuses.
Universities run security across schools, research labs, and medical centers, each with its own systems and rules. TruOps gives each one its own scope and gives the institution one view.
Coverage by obligation
Requirements met with current evidence
Where obligations overlap
Share of requirements answered by the same evidence
Darker means more requirements share the same evidence.
Compliance by department
Controls passing in each part of the institution
TruOps helps colleges and universities meet the GLBA Safeguards Rule for financial aid data, protect research data under NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC, handle FERPA and HIPAA where they apply, and assess vendors, with assessments scoped to schools, labs, and departments and rolled up to the institution.
- Central security is a small team, and schools, labs, and the medical center each run their own thing
- Research contracts brought in 800-171 or CMMC
- GLBA safeguards for financial aid come up in audits
The rules that apply
Most colleges and universities answer to several overlapping regimes at once. The common ones:
| Regime | What it asks for |
|---|---|
| GLBA Safeguards Rule | Student financial aid information |
| FERPA | Student education records |
| NIST SP 800-171 / CMMC | Controlled research data under federal contracts |
| HIPAA | Academic medical centers and clinics |
| PCI DSS | Campus payments |
Which ones apply depends on your size, location, and activities. TruOps runs whichever you need in one place and shows where they overlap.
The challenge
Title IV schools must run a GLBA Safeguards program for financial aid data. Research contracts bring 800-171 or CMMC. FERPA is a privacy law with no control catalog. Most campuses juggle a central GRC tool, a research security spreadsheet, HECVAT by email, and a registrar process that's separate from all of them.
- Labs ignore the central tool, or their unique research requirements get lost.
- The Department of Education points schools to 800-171 as a tool for GLBA. Teams treat them as the same thing and fall short on both.
- EdTech vendors sign a contract, and their HECVAT answers sit unread.
What you're probably using today
Universities often run one GRC tool centrally that the labs don't use. Research security keeps its own 800-171 spreadsheet, FERPA sits with the registrar, and HECVAT lives in procurement.
| What you use now | Where it falls short | With TruOps |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets, shared drives, and email | Your program lives in folders named after last year's audit. Owners paste screenshots the week before fieldwork, and nothing is dated, so you can't show what was true last quarter. | Upload those same files. TruOps pre-fills the assessment from them, cites every answer, and keeps technical checks running so you have evidence for the whole period. |
| A central GRC tool no department wants to use | You either lose the unique research requirements or get no data at all. | Scope assessments to schools and labs, keep research-specific requirements separate, and roll up the results. |
| A research security 800-171 workbook next to the GLBA program | Two catalogs with no map of where they truly overlap, and FERPA filed as if it were a third security framework. | Run GLBA, 800-171, and FERPA-related system assessments in one place and see where they overlap. |
| HECVAT workbooks by email | Vendors that process student and research data sign a contract without an assessment, and nobody checks their answers against their SOC 2. | Upload the HECVAT, pre-fill it from evidence, and assess vendors through a portal sized to the data they handle. |
What teams in this industry work on
Here are the programs colleges and universities run day to day, and what good looks like when an examiner, customer, or board asks.
| Use case | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| GLBA Safeguards for Title IV | A written information security program for financial aid data, including risk assessment, MFA and encryption where required, vendor oversight, and a report ready for the board |
| Research 800-171 and CMMC enclaves | Requirement-level status for labs and institutes that handle CUI, scoped so the rest of campus stays outside the boundary |
| FERPA and security, kept separate | Privacy disclosures and directory rules stay with the registrar, and security assessments cover the systems that hold those records |
| Scoping for schools, labs, and medical centers | Each unit is assessed in its own scope, and central security sees the roll-up with each unit's research or clinical requirements intact |
| EdTech and cloud vendor reviews | HECVAT or right-sized questionnaires through a portal, checked against each vendor's SOC 2 |
What makes it hard
- IT is decentralized across schools, labs, and departments.
- Research contracts bring their own security requirements.
- Small central teams oversee a large and varied set of systems.
How TruOps helps
- Scope assessments to departments and labs, and roll up the results.
- Track research-specific requirements separately from enterprise controls.
- Assess vendors that handle student and research data.
How TruOps helps
- One platform
- Compliance, risk, vendor, and customer assessments share the same questionnaires, evidence, and findings.
- Pre-filled with sources
- Assessments open with answers pulled from your documents and tools, each with a source.
- Vendor portal
- Third parties answer, upload proof, and fix findings in their own portal.
- Exam-ready history
- Results saved as of their date, with every decision in one audit log.
Questions
Which compliance requirements apply to colleges and universities?
Common ones include GLBA Safeguards Rule, FERPA, NIST SP 800-171 / CMMC, HIPAA, PCI DSS. Which ones apply depends on your size, location, and activities. TruOps runs any of them in one place and shows where they overlap.
Is GLBA the same as FERPA?
No. FERPA is a privacy law for education records. The GLBA Safeguards Rule requires an information security program for student financial aid data at Title IV schools. NIST SP 800-171 is a control set for research and CUI. The Department of Education points schools to 800-171 as a tool for GLBA work, but they're separate requirements. TruOps runs all three and shows exactly where they overlap.
Can we assess EdTech vendors with HECVAT?
Yes. Upload a HECVAT or a custom workbook and TruOps pre-fills it from past answers and evidence, cites its sources, and sends anything it can't answer to your team. It covers vendor due diligence, while your FERPA and GLBA program evidence stays separate.
Do we have to rip out the tools we already use?
No. TruOps connects to your cloud, identity, endpoint, vulnerability, and code tools. Spreadsheets, prior reports, and policies upload into the Data Room. If you're moving from a SOC 2 automation tool or an enterprise GRC suite, you bring over your frameworks, evidence, vendors, and risks.
Can we bring our existing assessments, control lists, and vendor files?
Yes. Upload workbooks, reports, policies, and vendor exports. TruOps turns them into structured questionnaires, controls, and risks, each linked to the file it came from, for you to review.
See it run on your own data.
Book 30 minutes with a GRC specialist. Bring a real document, like a SOC 2 report, risk register, or vendor list (redacted is fine), and we'll show TruOps AI working on it.