Dive Brief:
- Parchment completed its 20 millionth credential request last week, reaching a milestone in its business of offering transfer of academic transcripts.
- The company launched as Docufide in 2003 and has grown to exchanging close to 1 million credentials every two months since it re-branded itself as Parchment in 2011.
- Besides smoothing the process with digital transfers, Parchment is helping facilitate the expansion of the traditional transcript to include lifelong learning milestones as well as non-degree certificates.
Dive Insight:
High schools, colleges, and universities that have to print off a transcript, put it in an envelope, add an address and a stamp, and then send it take days to process requests. Digital options like Parchment take minutes because requesters do most of the work. Parchment has about 14% of the higher education market. Other services include the Electronic Transcript Exchange from the National Student Clearinghouse and Credentials Solutions.