Instead of hiring outside consultants for each institution's problems, these colleges set up their own three-person permanent consulting team. Among its accomplishments are: averting a financial crisis, aiding a recovery from financial crisis, reorganizing for steady states, and launching statewide planning. (Author/LBH)

Two academic consortia have achieved success in sponsoring international programs, which any one of their member institutions would be unlikely to undertake alone. The Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) and the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) programs are described. (MLW)

Argues the importance of maintaining teacher preparation programs in elite liberal arts colleges so that graduates of those colleges can have access to the profession and the profession can benefit from their talents. Suggests that such colleges form consortia in order to maintain preparation programs. (IRT)

Examples are provided of how St. John Fisher College and other members of the Rochester Area Colleges, Inc. consortium are working together to meet diverse objectives and save money. The cooperative programs involve sharing faculty members, pooling funds to purchase and share two television series, and sharing curricula and facilities. (Author/JMD)

Technology can be an obstacle or an advantage to cooperative data sharing within and between colleges and universities. Taking a technology-oriented approach before the technology is ripe for general use can be counterproductive. Many technical difficulties can be overcome by encouraging consortium staff to promote new methods of information…

Strategies and techniques used in evaluation of British higher education consortia are described, focusing on constraints, purposes, and methods used. The context within which the evaluation takes place is seen as a strong influence on purpose and methods. Similarities and differences in evaluation of individual institutions and consortia are…

Many historically black colleges and universities have developed several projects to improve technology on campus and promote its use. Some see it as a key to institutional survival. Projects emphasize training students and faculty in computer use, making joint purchases, sharing on-line instructional experiences, and seeking grants to install…

The development of a cross-registration system and formation of joint academic programs between colleges create a variety of educational opportunities for students and provide both direct and indirect benefits to a consortium's member institutions and their faculty. The Tri-College University Consortium in North Dakota illustrates the advantages…

The North Suburban Higher Education Consortium, a regional consortium in metropolitan Chicago (Illinois), illustrates how sharing technological resources can advance state educational technology initiatives. Begun as a modest effort to coordinate academic programs, the consortium has evolved into a complex system for the funding and use of…

Issues concerning a state policy supporting cooperative ventures among colleges and universities in Pennsylvania are discussed. It is suggested that a state policy encouraging successful interinstitutional cooperation must: avoid threatening the institutions, recognize that they must be the actual bargaining entities, inspire their interest…

This report by the Commission for Consortium Study and Development is divided into three sections. In section one consortia are defined; the perimeters and benefits to be derived from such cooperation are discussed; and the organization and implementation of consortia are outlined. Section two described student teaching exchange programs. The…

The author describes a prototype consortial structure demonstrating the benefits of college cooperation in Birmingham, Michigan, where five universities jointly offer continuing education courses in a vacant city school building. The arrangement provides many courses to a wide variety of students at low cost. (MF)

The metropolitan consortium can be an invaluable vehicle for facilitation, building liaisons among higher education institutions and between them collectively and the community at large. Cooperation makes the members stronger, better-managed, and more visible institutions, and they achieve collective clout with the public, the media, and others.…

College consortia have grown in the last two decades. Their potential lies in five areas: enriching or supplementing academic programs, often with new technologies, developing partnerships with new audiences, particularly through continuing education and partnerships with schools; maintaining faculty vitality; and using collective economic…

The authors of this article maintain that in times that call for doing more with less, partnerships among institutions may hold the key to leveraging resources and enhancing program effectiveness. Collaboration is useful when most institutions are facing tremendous budget strains; intensifying demographic pressures are confronting all of higher…