Collaboration in delivering higher education programs: Barriers and challenges

Innovative collaborative academic-degree programs are proliferating around the nation, often in response to legislative and fiscal pressures as well a s student demand. In the Midwest, the flagship campus in a university syste m has partnered with another system campus and four regional universities t o design and deliver a cutting-edge doctoral program in educational leaders hip across the entire state. In a northeastern state, two campuses have des igned an articulation agreement that allows substantial transfer of credit from the master's degree towards the doctoral degree at the doctoral granti ng institution. In another state, some campuses within a non-doctorate-gran ting university system have collaborated with the doctorate-granting univer sity system to offer the doctoral degree. In some cases, faculty have sough t collaborative arrangements in the research, development, and delivery of web-based courses, and assignment to doctoral committees with faculty who a re responsible for similar degree programs at other institutions. While muc h of this activity has taken place within state boundaries, several new par tnerships are emerging across state lines. Perhaps because of the relative newness of these initiatives, the conceptua lization of collaborative degree programs has varied widely, and little con sensus on core characteristics has developed. For some, collaboration in de gree programs means nothing more than joining two or more separate degrees or cross-listing courses from several. institutions. For others, new thinki ng, new structures, and new forms of communication are essential characteri stics of collaborative degree programs (Short & Stein, 1998). Regardless of how it is conceived, collaboration is "an untidy business, full of unchart ed territories, ambiguities, and institutional complexities".