California's three public higher education systems (University of California, California State University, the California Community College System) enroll nearly 3 million undergraduate students and employ almost 100 thousand faculty. In 2012, the California State Legislature directed the three systems to create an online library of open…

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…

Eighty-three consortia of institutions of higher education were surveyed for the purpose of measuring organization effectiveness. Generalized satisfaction was reported. Satisfaction with goal attainment was significantly related to the presence of at least one "internal" goal for the consortium. (Author/KW)

A learning consortium is a group of companies that come together to learn from each other to develop new capabilities, build the skills of their employees, and increase the productive capacities of their enterprises. Most undertake both work force and workplace development efforts. Although the key feature is cooperative learning, most learning…

This document describes collaboration by British providers of further and higher education to train workers for employment in rural based industries. After an introduction that reviews the need for such collaboration, the following five sections provide examples and two case studies of collaboration: (1) "Provision of Education and Training…

Describes the information technology (IT) services, infrastructure, budget, and successes of the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium in order to provide a model for schools looking to expand their learning technologies while containing the costs of development and maintaining pedagogical effectiveness. (EV)

Despite frequent criticisms of small schools, evidence collected over the last decade indicates that smaller English primary schools offer a curriculum and maintain standards compatible with those offered by larger institutions. In recent years, informal clustering arrangements have enabled small schools to increase the range of subjects offered,…

This paper analyzes the organizational strategies and dynamics of cooperation appropriate to research consortia. The experiences of nine existing research consortia are reviewed in an effort to propose guidelines for practice in the design of research consortia, and to expand understanding of the nature of interinstitutional cooperation. The nine…

Describes the efforts of the Southeastern Michigan Transfer Consortium, a cooperative of nine community colleges and universities formed in 1995 that seeks to exchange a variety of data about shared students and their educational experiences at partner institutions--information that suggests ways to tailor services and academic offerings based on…

A consortium is the most advanced form of collaboration, in which two or more institutions create a new mechanism to undertake "programs and projects of mutual interest" (Konrad and Small 1989, p. 200). This paper describes three distance-education consortia that were developed among Alberta, Canada, school districts. It describes the…

This book describes one of the somewhat paradoxical consequences of the development of the education market place--the development of collaborative relations and infrastructures between competing institutions. Fourteen chapters written by participants in collaborative arrangements describe and analyze their responses to the market place and…

Five community colleges and two vocational technical institutes located in King County, Washington, together with the Washington State Department of Employment Security, undertook a research project to (1) collect nationally available information on current research and successful practices in assistance to small businesses; (2) conduct a survey…

Information on 133 higher education consortia is presented in this directory. Each consortium meets the following criteria: voluntary, formal organization; includes at least two member institutions; undertakes more than a single program; is administered by a professional director; and receives continuing membership support. For each consortium,…

A principal of three Ontario "twinned" schools (sharing principal and services) discusses the arrangement's advantages: greater sharing of both human and technical resources and increased opportunities for broader budget negotiations between schools. The disadvantages of twinning relate to the additional stress placed on the principal…

Argues that historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are still needed to seek solutions to problems of the African-American community. The severity of social problems means that subgroups or consortia of HBCUs should be formed to study and solve particular problems, such as the African-American teacher shortage. (SLD)