Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

ACE, Lumina Foundation to Establish Alliance for Global Innovation in Tertiary Education

  • 07/10/17

WASHINGTON DC – The American Council on Education (ACE) is collaborating with Lumina Foundation to create a global learning community for the exchange of innovative practices shown to increase postsecondary degree attainment. 

Coordinated by ACE’s Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement (CIGE), a $551,200 grant from Lumina will support the formation of the Alliance for Global Innovation in Tertiary Education, a network of senior practitioners, thought leaders, policymakers and private sector employers across eight countries. Alliance members will meet in Washington, DC, in early 2018, and again outside the United States in 2019.

During this two-year initiative, the Alliance will identify flexible, student-centered approaches that enable diverse student populations to navigate the postsecondary system throughout their lifetimes to obtain knowledge, skills and credentials. Achieving more equitable outcomes for a changing student demographic is a central goal of the project, which will explore innovative modes of delivery, credentialing, credit recognition and degree pathways among the participating countries.

While national postsecondary systems are unique, the Alliance will test the hypothesis that strategies for achieving success for underserved students are transferrable across national borders.

Brad Farnsworth, ACE’s vice president for internationalization and global engagement, notes: “The challenge of increasing postsecondary attainment rates, and of reducing attainment gaps based on race, ethnicity or other factors, is not limited to the United States. The Alliance will identify innovations that have worked in other countries and explore how they might be adapted to improve outcomes for students in the American system.”

In addition to its organizational role, CIGE will produce a series of thought leadership papers, collect outcomes data from participating countries and develop a set of case studies with analysis and recommendations. Project outcomes will be shared widely among the U.S. higher education community.

ACE intends to sustain and possibly expand the Alliance to include other countries following the two-year project cycle.

Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. Lumina envisions a system that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results and meets the nation’s need for talent through a broad range of credentials. The Foundation’s goal is to prepare people for informed citizenship and for success in a global economy.

For more information, contact CIGE at [email protected].

Featured

  • Houston K–12 District Opens New Elementary School

    The Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (Lamar CISD) recently announced the completion of a new elementary school in a western suburb of Houston, Texas, according to a news release. Haygood Elementary School measures in at 110,000 square feet, has the capacity for 854 students, and is the first of three new schools scheduled to be built in the Cross Creek West community.

  • Indiana Wesleyan University Schedules Grand Opening for New Welcome Center

    Indiana Wesleyan University recently announced that it will soon open a new Welcome Center on its campus in Marion, Ind., according to a news release. The facility will serve as the home base for prospective students and their families to learn more about the university and student life there. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for February 19.

  • Illinois State University Breaks Ground on College of Fine Arts Transformation

    Illinois State University in Normal, Ill., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts transformation project, according to university news. The series of new constructions and renovations will upgrade spaces in Centennial East, the Center for the Visual Arts, and the Center for the Performing Arts, as well as replace the existing Centennial West facility with a new Commons Building.

  • 144-Year-Old High-School Campus Debuts New Academic Facility

    San Diego High School (SDHS) in San Diego, Calif., recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new student services and classroom building; the project is part of a larger SDHS Whole Site Modernization project that began in 2022.