UNIT-e acquires CEDAR – enhancing offering to further education colleges

The long-standing MIS solution, UNIT-e, finalises the acquisition of the sixth form college management information system, CEDAR, originally developed by Cardinal Newman College, Preston

UNIT-e, a trusted provider of management information systems (MIS) for FE, HE and Adult & Community Education has today acquired the assets of CEDAR student engagement software from Cardinal Newman College.

This acquisition sees CEDAR joining the UNIT-e solution portfolio – part of ParentPay Group, the largest EdTech supplier in the UK. CEDAR will seamlessly integrate with UNIT-e and other MIS products.

Developed in 2014 by the Preston-based college, and then sold to sixth forms across the country, CEDAR is a student engagement tool used to build and maintain an accurate student record across the institution, supporting the activities of academic and management staff. The software offers a number of unique features considered essential to the successful management of a college business, including student Mark Book – which enables teachers to create and mark assignments for students, including BTEC units – as well as Learner Progress Monitoring and Student Welfare functions, which are designed to support student wellbeing.

Until now, the CEDAR platform and its features have been tailored solely to sixth form colleges. As part of the acquisition, UNIT-e will work with user groups to tailor the features to further education colleges ahead of a full roll out in 2024.

In addition to tailoring CEDAR’s functions to further education colleges, UNIT-e will invest in the software to enhance functionality and accessibility. UNIT-e is delighted to welcome several members of the Cardinal Newman College team as part of the acquisition.

Once the integration and roll out is complete, UNIT-e’s further education users will have the option to access the new features, whilst existing CEDAR users will benefit from UNIT-e’s streamlined interface.

Simon Jarvis, Managing Director at UNIT-e, said:

“The acquisition will open an exciting new chapter for our users. UNIT-e customers have been asking for a single integrated solution with the student engagement functionality which CEDAR offers. It provides a great opportunity for us to enhance the capability and functionality of our existing MIS solution to better service our customer base and CEDAR users.”

“With customer-led developments planned for the coming months, CEDAR users can look forward to an improved interface, while UNIT-e users will benefit from a seamless integration of the two platforms.”

Nick Burnham, Principalat Cardinal Newman College said:

“We are delighted that the sale of CEDAR will help to ensure the continued use and satisfaction of the platform for our current customers as well as be further developed to support the success of other institutions in the wider FE sector. UNIT-e has been trusted by the sector for more than 30 years, and so we know that the future of CEDAR is in safe hands.”