Glazer-Raymo (2002) reviewed the nature of the 125 member consortia in the US, as identified by the Association for Consortium Leadership. While these domestic consortia can discuss particular topics of interest for US liberal arts institutions, more global perspectives are generally absent from their membership and from their programs.Ĭonsortia can be divided into different categories, based on their functions. Examples can include AAC&U advocating for and advancing liberal arts within the US, and the Annapolis Group providing annual meetings for Presidents and Deans to discuss administrative strategies and leadership in the liberal arts. These domestic US alliances are often too large to collaborate deeply in exchanges of students or faculty, but can provide collective advocacy, and serve to represent the interests of the broad number of institutions in their membership that share similar institutional missions. Notable US consortia of liberal arts institutions include the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), which includes over 1000 private colleges and universities, and the Annapolis Group of Liberal Arts Colleges, which includes 180 of the leading private liberal arts Colleges, the American Association of Universities and Colleges (AAC&U). While international alliances among research universities are relatively well established, the challenges for the small liberal arts college to execute a meaningful global collaboration can be much more difficult, due both to the much smaller size of the institution, its more limited resources, and its smaller and more intimate culture centered on undergraduate teaching and learning. These larger research universities have the capacity and funding levels to engage across the globe and to develop a stronger collective capacity to conduct high impact research on global challenges, and to share ideas on instructional approaches that are consistent with the missions of these universities. These include, among others, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), the Universitas 21 consortium, and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). In recent decades, more expansive geographic ranges have been explored for consortia of research universities to span the globe. These regional consortia enable deep engagement among the membership, and often include arrangements for athletics competitions, faculty exchanges, and joint curriculum development projects. Examples include the Ivy League, the Claremont Colleges, the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA), the Northwest 6. Many consortia among colleges and universities are based on proximity, to enable easier exchanges and meetings among faculty and students. Keywords: Liberal Arts, Global Higher Education, Asian Higher EducationĪ wide variety of consortial arrangements advance collective action among universities and colleges and have been a mainstay of the higher education world for many decades. This essay describes the origins, motivations, and context of the creation of PALAC, its member institutions, and some of the initial projects planned by the new organization, and goals for global impact for PALAC. PALAC contains nine of the best liberal arts institutions from across the Pacific Region, including institutions in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Canada, and the United States. A new alliance of liberal arts colleges known as the Pacific Alliance of Liberal Arts Colleges (PALAC) was established in 2021 with the purpose to better articulate the global components of liberal arts education, and to collaborate on key projects that will build collective capacity for student-centered liberal arts education that engages with the world’s most pressing problems. Penprase and Thomas Schneider, all rights reserved. The Pacific Alliance of Liberal Arts Colleges (PALAC)Ĭopyright 2023 Bryan E. Strengthening the Liberal Arts Along the Pacific Rim: Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.2.2023
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