Higher education partnerships highlighted in rural college briefs

The National Center for Inquiry and Improvement (NCII) recently released a series of briefs authored by members of the Rural Leaders Learning Community (RLLC) focused on several issues impacting rural colleges and the communities they serve.?The briefs are outstanding and will no doubt resonate with leaders at rural community colleges.?

I reflected on our work at the Michigan Center for Student Success (MCSS) as we engage with a substantial number of rural community colleges in Michigan.?I was particularly interested in the concepts presented in Brief 2:?Acting Boldly to Build Financial Solvency authored by Matt Gianneschi, Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff at Colorado Mountain College, and Brenda Kays, President of Kilgore College (TX).?They note that colleges could reduce costs and improve performance by exploring partnerships with other higher education institutions.?

In Michigan, we have engaged in a years-long effort to create efficiencies by developing multi-institutional transfer articulation agreements.?Negotiating transfer agreements can be a tedious process, consuming the limited time and energy of senior leaders, administrators, and counselors.?Through the 10 MiTransfer Pathways, all 28 community colleges in Michigan established transfer agreements with all 15 public universities and the majority of our 25 independent institutions.?For example, rural Montcalm Community College signed 7 multi-institutional transfer agreements which would have required the college to negotiate 129 separate agreements!

Thanks to an investment from the Ascendium Education Group, the MCSS is developing more statewide transfer agreements focused on applied degree programs which will be launched in 2022, and rural community college leaders across Michigan have stepped up to lead in this work.?Read more about our work in Points of Pride:?Transfer Success in Michigan.?