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American Association of Colleges and Universities
Formation1915; 109 years ago (1915)
TypeNon-profit organization
PurposeImproving undergraduate education and advancing liberal education
Headquarters1818 R Street NW, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Membership
1000 institutions
President
Lynn Pasquerella
Main organ
Liberal Education
Websitewww.aacu.org
Formerly called
  • Association of American Colleges (1915–1995)
  • Association of American Colleges and Universities (1995–2022)[1]

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is a global membership organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. It works to improve quality and equity in undergraduate education and advance liberal education.

Founded in 1915 as the Association of American Colleges,[2] AAC&U comprises more than 1,000 member institutions in the US and abroad, including accredited public and private colleges, community colleges, research universities, and comprehensive universities. It was renamed the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 1995, and acquired its current name in 2022.[3]

History

The organization was founded in Chicago in 1915.

In 1976, it ended its role in federal lobbying and spun-off this work to the newly created National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.[4] Today, it focuses on "advancing the vitality and democratic purposes of undergraduate liberal education" and hosts conferences, workshops and an annual meeting.[5]

Publications

AAC&U publishes Liberal Education magazine, sponsors meetings and institutes for campus teams and publishes reports and monographs.

Peer Review was a quarterly magazine published by the association from 2000 to fall 2019[6] that reported "emerging trends and key debates in undergraduate liberal education".[7]

The Multi-State Collaborative to Advance Quality Student Learning

The Multi-State Collaborative to Advance Quality Student Learning was a collaboration led by the AAC&U and the state higher education executive officers[8] from approximately 2014 to 2018. As of October 2016, the project involved 900 faculty members at 80 public two- and four-year institutions in 13 states. The project aimed to produce a cross-institutional method of evaluating student learning by getting faculty from different institutions to agree on a set of general education outcomes by using a common rubric, the AAC&U Value Rubrics, for evaluating student work. The leaders of the collaboration hoped that the results of the project would "paint an accurate picture of learning nationwide and, in turn, spark continuing improvement. The notability of the project is its "subject of analysis: the authentic stuff of college – the homework, problem sets, and papers that students regularly produce.[9]"

References

  1. ^ "History of AAC&U". AAC&U. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  2. ^ "History of AAC&U". AAC&U. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  3. ^ "History of AAC&U". AAC&U. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  4. ^ "History of AAC&U". AAC&U. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  5. ^ "About AAC&U". AAC&U. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  6. ^ "Peer Review Archive". AAC&U. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  7. ^ "About Peer Review". Association of American Colleges and Universities. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  8. ^ Lederman, Doug. "Are They Learning?". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  9. ^ Berrett, Dan (16 October 2016). "The Next Great Hope For Measuring Learning". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
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