The sale was unanimously agreed by Tribal’s board, pending regulatory and stakeholder approval.

“Tribal is in clear alignment with Ellucian’s strategy, purpose and values, and this is an exciting opportunity to expand our combined reach as we power tertiary education so institutions can empower student success,” said Laura Ipsen, CEO at Ellucian. 

Ellucian’s focus ranges from enrolment to alumni relations, as well as other areas including financial aid solutions and student management systems.

Tribal’s chairman, Richard Last, said the combination of the two companies will “created an enhanced platform which will leverage the strength of both businesses” across “complementary geographies”.

i-Graduate, which produces insights on the global education sector including an international student barometer, was bought by Tribal in 2013 for £7.5m.

An i-Graduate representative said they were unable to comment on the acquisition.

Tribal has grown significantly in recent years, expanding its North American operations in 2014 and partnering with Flywire for payment streamlining in 2022. 

“Ellucian will become – when combined with Tribal – one of the largest UK SaaS providers”

“We recognise Tribal’s notable transformation journey to cloud and are eager to work with Tribal’s strong leadership and talented team. With this investment, we can accelerate our impact in large and important educational markets around the world,” Ipsen continued. 

The move could give Ellucian a sizeable majority of the UK student management market, according to Enroly. 

Enroly data estimates Tribal’s student information system (SITS) has a 70% market share in student management systems and Ellucian has 21%. Other student management systems make up 9%.

An Enroly spokesperson told The PIE: “Enroly integrates with all major platforms and we are transparent about the systems we integrate with across our network of clients.”