With declining enrollments and budget limitations, it becomes more and more difficult for small rural schools to offer state-approved programs (often based on the "bigger is better" model of education). For many already consolidated districts, further consolidation is not a viable solution to the problem. Cooperative arrangements are…

This report addresses the concern that too many youth leave high school without constructive plans for the future. Career planning helps some young people develop a sense of connectedness leading to commitment and follow-through. The Career Information System (CIS) is an interactive, computer-based system helping students explore occupational and…

An informal consortium was formed in 1983 by five postsecondary educational institutions and the educational television authority in British Columbia to cooperate in using audio teleconferencing for course delivery, and to conduct a pilot project between September 1983 and May 1984. The consortium members (Simon Fraser University, British Columbia…

The administrative and functional organization of higher education consortia are discussed. The need for cooperation between individual institutions has been established; one lone institution cannot encompass all knowledge generated. The rapid growth of consortia has generated extensive services, funding sources, developmental activities,…

A consortium was formed to experiment in sharing instructional ideas and materials among the membership of the North Carolina community college system for the purpose of improving the quality and efficiency of instruction by increasing the availability of high quality instructional materials while at the same time decreasing the costly duplication…

The graduate courses and inservice teacher education workshops in Harrison County, W. Va. serve as a flexible model for inservice design. The description presented in this paper incorporates the followoing components of the teacher center model: (1) semi-annual needs assessment; (2) broad course topics; (3) team teaching techniques; (4) number of…

This paper describes the formation of the Appalachian Consortium, assesses its impact after one year of operation, and examines its future development. Consortium goals were to provide in-service, staff development opportunities for the instructional faculties of the consortium's member colleges (three community colleges and a state university)…

Reviews a system approach to change in order to focus on interesting developmental techniques for multi-university system improvement. The specific change discussed is translation of existing courses and curricula to a competency approach in order to bring about extended degree opportunities for non-traditional students. (Author/VT)

A year-and-a-half consortium experience that was intended to provide an impetus for each institution's retention efforts progress is described. It includes examining a school's attitude and efforts toward retention, increasing cooperation among different branches within the institution, and enlisting more support by the administrators. (MLW)

This document presents a review of cost-containment initiatives relevant to higher education institutions. Originally commissioned to examine cost containment initiatives carried out by institutions affiliated with the Foundation for Independent Higher Education (FIHE), the paper was expanded to include a sector-wide review of three types of…

The Quad-Cities Graduate Study Center in Rock Island, Illinois, a voluntary, publicly funded, academic consortium, is described. It was incorporated as an experimental project to determine if pooling institutional resources were academically, financially, and administratively possible. It is now a model of inter-institutional cooperation providing…

The organizational arrangements of the Associated Colleges of Central Kansas, a consortium chartered as a corporation to provide cooperative computing facilities, are described. Hardware systems, administrative system development, and financing are examined. (SF)

The Atlanta University Center, Inc., a consortium of six institutions (Clark, Morehouse, Morris Brown, Spelman, Atlanta University, and Interdenominational Theological Center) represents the world's largest nucleus of Black private higher education. Its background and the problems faced in dealing with each institution's desire for autonomy are…

A discussion of distance education outlines its development, identifies its characteristics, and analyzes three existing program types and the needs they serve. The Irish National Distance Education Centre, which uses a cooperative approach with several institutions, is presented in greater detail. (MSE)