The University of Texas at Austin Office of the President

A panelist speaks at 2017 CLIMB Conference at UT Austin

The Power of Partnership

Networks are powerful force multipliers. Through collaborations, The University of Texas at Austin achieves more than it could on its own. UT is advancing student success, teaching and learning techniques, and educational innovation through statewide and national partnerships and research collaboratives. Texas faculty and staff members work with each organization and collaborative to advance the institution’s mission, increasing UT’s impact throughout the state, nation and world.

The American Talent Initiative (ATI) brings a diverse set of public and private top colleges and universities with high graduation rates together with the philanthropy and research communities to expand access and opportunity for talented low- and moderate-income students. The institutions are committed to enhancing institutional efforts for recruitment and enrollment of low- and moderate-income students, sharing best practices for student success and increasing access across the nation’s top-performing colleges and universities. The initiative is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and coordinated by the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program and Ithaka S+R.

Member Since: 2016

AAC&U is dedicated to advancing the vitality and public standing of liberal education by making quality and equity the foundations for excellence in undergraduate education in service to democracy. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. AAC&U comprises 1,400 member institutions — including accredited public and private colleges, community colleges, research universities and comprehensive universities of every type and size.

The AAU comprises 62 institutions in the U.S. and Canada that continually advance society through education, research and discovery. AAU members collectively help shape policy for higher education, science and innovation; promote best practices in undergraduate and graduate education; and strengthen the contributions of research universities to society.

The APLU Center for Public University Transformation (CPUT) commits to growing, innovating and sustaining effective solutions that are scalable across the diverse set of institutions comprising the public university sector. To achieve this vision, the Center will convene 100 change-ready universities within 10 “transformation clusters” – reaching more than two million undergraduate students nationwide. Each cluster will determine how to work together to refine, implement and scale innovative practices that address shared challenges among the participating institutions.

Member since: 2018

The Bay View Alliance (BVA) is an international network of research universities (currently limited to institutions in the U.S. and Canada) exploring strategies for cultural change to support and sustain the widespread adoption of instructional methods that lead to more effective teaching and enhanced student learning. Informed by ideas from improvement science, BVA test strategies for change through Research Action Clusters (RACs) each composed of three or more partner universities. BVA builds new knowledge about leading culture change and is committed to engaging the larger higher education community with findings that may help foster better teaching and learning cultures.

Member since: 2012

The Collegiate Leaders in Increasing Mobility (CLIMB) is a partnership between leading higher education economists, policymakers and a diverse set of public and private U.S. colleges and universities. Collectively and individually, CLIMB partners seek to understand not only which colleges act as engines of intergenerational mobility, but why and how schools and policymakers can promote opportunity and economic growth by helping larger numbers of low-income students reach the middle class.

Member since: 2017

Excelencia in Education believes institutions and communities intentionally acting and measuring their postsecondary student success can be agents of change in public policy. The organization accelerates Latino student success in higher education to address the U.S. economy’s need for a highly educated workforce and for civic leadership by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latinos; promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement; and organizing a network of professionals with common cause for Latino student success.

Member since: 2018

The Gallup-Purdue Index is a landmark effort to measure long-term outcomes for college graduates in order to give colleges and universities the opportunity to better understand their success in preparing students for leading meaningful lives and careers. Working with university partners, Gallup examines graduates’ outcomes and compares them with results from the national study.

In particular, the UT Austin alumni report examines and quantifies alumni outcomes based on Gallup’s measures of well-being, institutional attachment and employee engagement, mapping them back to graduates’ reflections on their undergraduate experiences.

First survey administered: 2017

The UIA is a national consortium of 11 large public research universities committed to increasing the number and diversity of college graduates in the US, particularly for low-income and first-generation students. Partners of the UIA have the opportunity to pilot new student success interventions and share and learn insights and best practices from other large public research universities to improve student success.

Member since: 2014

The Student Experience in the Research Universities (SERU) Consortium includes many peer research universities across the country. The SERU survey, or “UTell Us,” is administered to all undergraduate students to gather information on student engagement, both curricular and co-curricular, and provides information related to student perceptions of their major and the qualities that make attending a research university unique. The instrument provides important data to help the university better assess and improve services to students, and provides an understanding of how our efforts compare to those of our peers.

Member since: 2011