Partnerships and Collaborations in Higher Education (review)

Partnerships and Collaborations in Higher Education provides readers—particularly faculty and college leaders—with an overview of the elements involved in how to form partnerships. Pamela Eddy conceptualizes partnerships and collaborations as opportunities to solve shared issues and achieve mutual goals by combining the resources, skills, and knowledge of individual partners.

Institutions of higher education, policymakers, and financial agencies need to work together, she explains, but should attend to best practices of success. Eddy provides an excellent account of why, how, and what types of partnerships are created. She also provides a variety of factors to consider in the formation of partnerships such as organizational context, capital, confines of institutional involvement, and relationship building. Throughout this book, she reminds readers of the importance of collaborations and partnerships in higher education’s future.

Eddy divides the book in four sections. The first, “Overview,” compiles the many organizational and individual needs and concerns that motivate institutions and individual faculty to collaborate. Eddy enumerates the benefits that joint initiatives offer for higher education and suggests implications that may accrue from increased collaborative work.

The second section, “Organizational Partnerships,” focuses on collaborative work between colleges, universities, and other institutions or organizations concerned with postsecondary education. Eddy explains why and how partnerships form. Partnerships develop based on a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations including economic concerns, the need to fulfill a task, or the drive to adhere to a mission and vision. Organizations can create informal or formal partnerships of varying duration. For effective long-term partnerships, relationship building and trust among the members must exist.

In this section, Eddy also addresses the critical roles of social, organizational, and partnership capital. Social capital is the catalyst for initiating a partnership. A “champion” advocates the development of a partnership and seeks out others to be involved. The strength of that individual’s social capital—his or her professional relationships and social networks—will influence the amount of attention and interest others direct toward the proposed initiative.

Organizational capital constitutes the resources necessary to support partnerships. Eddy typologizes essential resources using Bolman and Deal’s (2008) four structural frameworks of organizations: structural, human resources, political, and symbolic.

Once the partnership moves beyond a collective of individuals’ interests and crystallizes into joint work with a shared vision and goal, then partnership capital develops. The strength of relationships, communication, trust, understanding and shared goals form the base for partnership capital, which expands through the synergy of members’ collective social and organizational capital.

In the third section, “Individual Collaborations,” Eddy focuses on joint work among faculty members. Typically, such collaborations occur outside the university, arising from individual professors’ involvement in external organizations and events. Eddy distills research on various types of collaborations, how they form, and the development of individual roles within them. For example, faculty can collaborate among themselves within a discipline, through professional development and in-service activities, or as business partnerships and consultancies.

Traditional faculty roles and responsibilities pose challenges to collaborations. Practices and policies governing time allocation and reward systems often diminish the importance of joint work, positioning it in a lower place in the academic hierarchy. The author urges academic leaders to recognize the importance of faculty collaborations, and adjust policy and reward systems accordingly.

In the last section, “Future Issues,” Eddy concludes by revisiting the different motivations underlying partnership development and by discussing how those motivations affect the sustainability of current and future partnerships. The section highlights international partnerships as an emerging type of collaboration with great potential for future growth. An expanding global market, increased migration and travel across national borders, and expectations that college students will become global citizens fuel interest in and opportunities for international partnerships.

Eddy cautions that extrinsic motivations such as economic factors and the desire for financial gain provide a limited foundation to sustain partnerships. Conversely, intrinsic motivations such as the desire to achieve a shared goal or vision for educational and social outcomes support longer-lasting...