Accenture's federal arm awarded $937M student aid contract extension

Accenture's U.S. federal subsidiary will continue its nearly two-decade run as the lead industry partner in processing student aid applications for the Education Department.

Education first awarded the work to Accenture Federal in 2006 as a sole-source contract. In 2014, Accenture Federal prevailed over two other bidders for the follow-on contract that was valued at $966.8 million.

The contract supports requirements for financial aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

In May 2024, Education issued a solicitation for the new seven-year contract that has a $936.7 million ceiling. But Accenture Federal was the only company to submit a proposal, according to a Sam.gov notice.

Officials at Accenture Federal declined to comment on the award.

According to Deltek data, obligations under the contract have ranged from $125 million to $160 million per year for the last 10 years.

Under the contract, Accenture Federal accepts and processes student financial aid applications for students and schools through the Common Origination and Disbursement system also called COD. The company generates regular reports for stakeholders and provides access to a data warehouse for ad hoc analysis and reporting.

Accenture Federal also operates a COD operations portal that includes a central repository of working documents, contract deliverables and other operational products.

The new contract supports the National Student Loan Data System, the Enterprise Data Warehouse & Analytics, the Enterprise Data Management and Analytics Platform Services, the Federal Tax Information Datamart, and centralized customer service.

Education wants Accenture Federal to modernize these systems under the seven-year contract.