Inter-Institutional Partnerships Propel A Successful Collaborative Undergraduate Degree Program In Chemistry

Small private liberal arts colleges are increasingly tuition-dependent and mainly attract students by creating student-centered learning communities. On the other hand, larger universities tend to be trendsetters where its faculty tend to seek intellectual independence and are involved in career focused cutting-edge research. The Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) and Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) are federal-state-university partnerships that builds basic research infrastructure and coax the state-wide higher education institutions to collaborate with each other in order to enhance their competitiveness. As a result in Delaware, Wesley College instituted curricular and operational changes to launch an undergraduate program in biological chemistry where its students take three upper division chemistry courses and can choose to participate in annual summer undergraduate internships at nearby Delaware State University.

A Qualitative Study Of The Strategic Plans Of Three Higher Education Institutions

This research will use qualitative measures to determine differences in strategy between an Ivy-League Majority University, like the University of Pennsylvania, and two historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). One of the HBCUs selected will be based on U.S. News & World Report as one of Americas best black colleges. The other will be Delaware State University. The source of the data will be archival and would include interviews and surveys. The objective is to determine best practices in strategy and implementation that can be applied to institutions to gain competitive advantage. Another goal is to add to the body of research about higher education institutions.