Building Better Futures Together: The Power and Benefits of School Partnerships

More schools are looking for collaboration or partnership opportunities with other schools. These partnerships benefit both the schools involved and the students. In this article, we explore some of the benefits of school partnerships, and then consider whether your institution should move ahead with a school collaboration. 

#1. School Partnerships to Deliver Community Experiences 

One of the most popular examples of school partnerships is when a purely online school collaborates with an institution that has a physical space. This gives the obvious benefit to the online school of being able to offer a physical location and an on-campus experience for its learners. This can help online students feel a sense of community and have a more traditional college experience. 

Meanwhile, a collaboration between educational institutions can let the school with the physical location expand its online offerings. It can also help both schools with their budgets. After all, having physical space requires a large budget, and with the shift to online learning, many traditional schools are struggling to afford to maintain their campus and facilities. But partnering with an online school can let them do this thanks to the sharing of costs and revenues. 

Related Read: Creating a Customized Learning Experience with Blended Learning

#2. School Partnerships to Offer Unique Experiences

Another great opportunity for school collaboration is between various domestic schools as an alternative to traditional study abroad programs. These domestic “study abroad” or exchange programs let students take advantage of the best features of each school. 

For example, they can choose to mainly study at a school where they love the campus, community, or location. But maybe another school specializes in their major, so they want to study there for a few semesters to take important advanced courses and maximize their educational opportunities. 

This type of exchange or partnership lets students take advantage of all types of features of schools. Another example is that it could allow students with learning differences to get the support they need from one school while taking advantage of programs at another. 

#3. Offering the Best of Both Worlds

Overall, school partnerships let students get the best of both worlds. This goes back to the ability of online schools to offer in-person classes and vice versa. An online school could even white-label some of its courses to make it easier for traditional universities to offer online learning. This would save the course purchaser the need to create the course from scratch or move it online, while the school that made the course will profit. 

Related Read: Microlearning vs. Traditional Learning vs. eLearning - What’s The Difference?

#4. School Merger or Acquisition 

If you still aren’t sure about school collaborations or whether they make sense, just think about them as another type of school merger or acquisition. Many schools are merging due to increasing costs, and this is just an extension of it. 

The Bottom Line

School collaborations let both schools involved provide an even better experience for their students. At the same time, they can limit financial concerns for both institutions involved and help them expand their offerings to attract students.