American Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) and Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) have joined forces to globalize higher education virtually
and in-person.

November 23, 2020.

Boca Raton, Florida.  For Immediate Release.

As colleges and universities face the mounting challenges associated with COVID-19, American Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) and the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) are working together to help their members internationalize their higher education curriculum and co-develop virtual programs. 

The first onset of the pandemic left higher education institutions scrambling to transition their courses and institutional administration to online-only mode. It also caused significant disruption to international student mobility. The second wave has further compounded the challenges colleges and universities face as they continue to struggle to find balance between future enrollment and current budget decisions.

Earlier this year AHEA and CONAHEC partnered to provide their members the technology, guidance, and opportunity to collaborate with their peers around the globe. They have also forged a commitment to help colleges and universities identify ways to incorporate virtual courses and programs into the higher education system.

As part of this initiative, the organizations extended an open invitation to their membership to collaborate and develop international curriculum using AHEA’s InspirED™ platform.  The result is a diverse group of academic projects hosted by faculty fellows from higher education institutions in Italy, Taiwan, Borneo, China, Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

These participants will present their findings, best practices, and lessons learned in a panel discussion at the upcoming North American Higher Education Conference taking place December 1-5, 2020. “We are excited to provide a centralized platform where academic professionals around the world can overcome those barriers brought on by the pandemic, and gain faculty and institutional perspective on virtual international partnerships,” said Benjamin Shank, CEO of AHEA.

North American Higher Education Conference will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. This year’s theme, “Rebuilding the Global Village,” highlights the importance of collaboration among higher education institutions and their crucial role in building international relationships and prosperity. This is the first time the event will be held virtually and is expected to draw attendees from around the globe.

All faculty and academic professionals interested in collaboration opportunities with higher education institutions in Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe, the United States, and Asia are invited to attend the conference. “The need for the international higher education community to work together and share successes and opportunities is more acute than ever,” said Sean Manley-Casimir, executive director of CONAHEC. “Together we can purposefully rebuild our global village through mutual understanding and respect, solidarity and collaboration.”

For more information about the North American Higher Education Conference, visit https://elnet.org/.

About AHEAAmerican Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) is founded with the mission to support colleges and universities for their institutional effectiveness and growth, promote the collaboration of faculty and curriculum development, facilitate programmatic internationalization, and implement best-practice student engagement strategies.

AHEA recognizes the advancement of technologies can enhance its educational visions, partnered with tech industry and developed InspirED™ platform. The platform natively integrates a student information system ConnectED™, a learning management system BlendED™, and a professional engagement system CollaboratED™. It also combines operational highlights, performance reports, CRM, and analytics.

Free to its member institutions, the platform provide colleges and universities the tools to identify and assess their strengths, challenges, and efficiencies to further enhance their operational models to better serve and prepare new student populations for the rapidly-evolving world.

To learn more visit www.ahealliance.org.  

About CONAHEC

Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) is a non-profit organization that fosters international higher education collaboration in North America and with the rest of the world.  With more than 150-member higher education institutions and organizations, CONAHEC is uniquely positioned to facilitate ongoing practical relationships among members through our student, faculty and staff mobility programs, and international conferences and events.  CONAHEC has become a preeminent network supporting an integrated yet diverse higher education community and catalyzing collaboration to address our common challenges. Centrally important is improving technology-based support for international higher education engagement, the focus of CONAHEC’s Virtual International Partnerships initiative.  To learn more visit www.CONAHEC.org

American Higher Education Alliance
Brooke Greenwald
brooke@cornerstonepr.net
(240) 370-7036

Corporate
publicrelations@ahealliance.org Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration
Sean Manley-Casimir
membership@conahec.org
(520) 201-3949