Collaborative Partnerships

The strategic context for flexible delivery through collaborative partnerships encompasses the need for:

• flexibility across institutions, including developments in support of multi-disciplinary team working, interdisciplinarity within programmes across faculties and schools, and collaboration between academic, technical, administrative and library staff;

• support for external collaborative initiatives on a regional, national and global level, including joint delivery, with particular emphasis on vocational areas such as teacher education and social work, student exchanges and work placements;

• articulation between FE and HE institutions, with seamless transition across sectors, courses and levels; and

• opportunities to offer a range of specialisms and access a broader resource in terms of funding, expertise and markets through collaboration.

Development projects have produced useful resources on approaches to successful multi-institutional partnership, the development and delivery of joint provision, cross-sectoral transition and FE/HE articulation. The development of applications, systems and infrastructure to support multi-institutional provision is a major theme across the JISC e-Learning Programme. The eXchange for Learning (X4L) programme has produced staff development resources in support of multi-disciplinary developments, and promoting flexible delivery across multi-institutional contexts.

Resources for the development of collaborative partnerships for flexible delivery include approaches to understanding cultural differences and communication issues as well as technical interoperability. A number of initiatives have developed systems and tools in support of cross-institutional PDP and e-portfolios for FE/HE articulation, and work-based learning.