Midwestern Higher Education Compact

Midwestern Higher Education Compact
Name	Midwestern Higher Education Compact
Formation	1991
Type	Interstate compact
Headquarters	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Region served	Midwestern United States
Leader title	Executive Director

Midwestern Higher Education Compact The Midwestern Higher Education Compact is an interstate statutory organization created to promote collaboration among public and private colleges and universities across the Midwestern United States. It fosters cooperative programs, policy research, and collective purchasing to increase access, affordability, and quality among member institutions. The Compact engages governors, state legislatures, and higher education leaders to coordinate initiatives affecting student mobility, workforce development, and institutional innovation.

Overview

The Compact operates as a membership association bringing together state legislatures, executive offices, and postsecondary institutions similar to Southern Regional Education Board, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, New England Board of Higher Education, Council of State Governments, and National Governors Association. It focuses on policy areas frequently addressed by entities such as Lumina Foundation, Gates Foundation, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Brookings Institution. Programs often intersect with work by American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Institute of Higher Education Policy, and Education Commission of the States. Compact activities align with state-level priorities influenced by actors like Minnesota Legislature, Ohio General Assembly, Illinois General Assembly, Indiana General Assembly, and Michigan Legislature.

History

The Compact was established by statute following models set by multistate agreements such as the Interstate Highway System planning precedents and regional compacts like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and legal frameworks used in the Compact Clause debates. Early convenings included representatives from offices similar to the Governors of Minnesota, Governor of Ohio, Governor of Illinois, Governor of Indiana, and Governor of Michigan. Founding strategies were informed by commissions and reports from organizations like the Rand Corporation, Education Resources Information Center, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, American Council on Education, and policy analyses appearing in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Over successive legislative sessions in member states, the Compact expanded programmatically to include shared data systems, reciprocity agreements, and collective procurement modeled on initiatives by State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

Member States and Governance

Member states include governments and legislative delegations analogous to those in Iowa General Assembly, Kansas Legislature, Kentucky General Assembly, Minnesota Legislature, Missouri General Assembly, Nebraska Legislature, North Dakota Legislative Assembly, Ohio General Assembly, South Dakota Legislature, Wisconsin Legislature, and Michigan Legislature. Governance consists of appointed commissioners drawn from state executives, lieutenant governors, and legislative leaders comparable to appointments seen in National Conference of State Legislatures delegations. Institutional representation includes presidents from institutions like University of Minnesota, The Ohio State University, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, Indiana University Bloomington, Michigan State University, University of Iowa, University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, North Dakota State University, University of South Dakota, and University of Wisconsin–Madison. Advisory boards draw on expertise from leaders associated with Council for Higher Education Accreditation, Association of American Universities, Big Ten Conference, Mid-American Conference, and tribal colleges connected to American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

Programs and Initiatives

The Compact administers regional programs similar to interstate tuition reciprocity, workforce training consortia, and shared digital learning platforms akin to initiatives by Coursera, edX, Udacity, and statewide systems such as Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and Ohio Board of Regents. Initiatives include scholarship consortia mirroring National Science Foundation-funded collaborations, regional research partnerships like those supported by Department of Education grants, and procurement cooperatives that echo practices used by University of California system purchasing. The Compact has sponsored studies with partners such as Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, Urban Institute, American Institutes for Research, and SRI International to evaluate student transfer pathways, credentialing reforms, and competency-based models pioneered in projects associated with Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University.

Funding and Budget

Funding streams include state appropriations from member legislatures, fee-for-service agreements with public systems, and grants from foundations like Lumina Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and federal agencies such as U.S. Department of Education. The Compact’s budgetary procedures resemble practices in organizations like the Council of Great Lakes Governors and rely on audited financials prepared by firms in the network of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, KPMG, and Ernst & Young. Revenue sources also include cooperative purchasing rebates negotiated with vendors including Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, and academic publishers comparable to Elsevier and Johns Hopkins University Press contracts managed by consortia such as Association of Research Libraries.

Impact and Evaluation

Evaluations of Compact programs have been conducted in collaboration with research partners like Urban Institute, Pew Research Center, RAND Corporation, National Bureau of Economic Research, and SRI International. Outcomes measured include changes in cross-border enrollment similar to patterns tracked by National Student Clearinghouse, cost savings reported by consortium procurement analyses, and policy adoptions by state legislatures analogous to reform efforts in Wisconsin State Legislature and Ohio General Assembly. Independent reviews reference metrics used by Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and accreditation findings from Higher Learning Commission. The Compact’s influence is reflected in interregional dialogues with counterparts such as Southern Regional Education Board and Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and through practitioner networks linked to American Educational Research Association and Association for Institutional Research.

Category:Interstate compacts in the United States