*UKHotViewsExtra* RM and The International Baccalaureate announce long-term partnership

RM plc has secured a significant expansion to its longstanding partnership with The International Baccalaureate (IB). The new arrangement will see the Abingdon-headquartered EdTech business support IB’s drive towards digital assessment. 

RM has been working with the non-profit education foundation for 15 years, supporting its transition to e-marking. IB is now looking to push its digital transformation further by transitioning its Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-related Programme (CP) to digital assessment. 

Talking to TechMarketView, Dr Matthew Glanville, Head of Assessment Principles and Practice at IB, said IB were looking to better reflect the way students interact with the world and that digital assessment presents a huge opportunity to do this whilst also improving access and enhancing inclusion for those with special educational needs. 

Although the terms of the arrangement have not been revealed, the length and scale of engagement suggests this is one of the largest assessment contracts RM has won to date. 

RM CEO, Mark Cook, said the partnership is perfectly aligned to where he wants the business to go, particularly its aims to develop a Global Accreditation Platform (see RM draws a line under turbulent times and sets sights on growth). It should also provide the good opportunity for RM to demonstrate its capability on an international stage, with 51% of IB schools in the Americas, 28% in EMEA and 21% in Asia-Pacific. The curriculum offered by IB is also growing rapidly in popularity, as demonstrated by 37% growth in the number of IB programmes being delivered over the last five-years.

As we reported in March, there is a new confidence and positivity within RM. It has been a challenging few years, but it looks like the worst is behind it. The IB partnership should act as a launchpad for growth in the digital assessment market. Other awarding bodies and education departments will be following IB’s progress with interest, which should lead to further opportunities for RM. We can also expect RM to increase the range of services it offers to help organisations break down some of the barriers to digital transformation of assessment e.g. access to appropriate infrastructure. The future is looking brighter for one of the original EdTech pioneers. 

TechMarketView subscribers, including UKHotViews Premium subscribers, can read more about RM's partnership with IB in our expanded UKHotViewsExtra article here.

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Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:45

Tags: contract   education   schools   assessment   edtech   partnership   digital+transformation  

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