Cohabitation to collaboration: university center partnerships and the opportunity for an idea state of collaboration

Abstract

When you embark on a new roommate scenario, sharing space is not always an easy adjustment. This holds true in cohabiting higher education arrangements as well, such as university centers (UCs) where more than one academic institution come together to share a campus. Over time, the hope is that the institutions will evolve from "roommates" to "partners", beginning to share resources, rewards, and working together to achieve the mission of the university center. This study was designed to dig deeper into the university center model and investigate how co-location of universities may influence the level of partnership. Specifically, this study aimed to assess whether (and if so, how) cohabiting institutions at university centers can foster and grow into collaborative partnerships. Through an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, this study used a survey and interviews to discover how partnerships were currently working at university centers and identify the areas of strength and weaknesses brought on by cohabiting with one another. Using statistical tools such as independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA and thematic coding, the quantitative and qualitative strands of research brought together a unique response to the research questions. The findings show that the key actors and structure of UCs are the most hindering factors when partners try to engage in greater levels of partnership. Most UCs are described to be operating at a cooperative level. Furthermore, most UC representatives believe that collaboration would be ideal, but is not necessary for UC success; insinuating that being "roommates" may be as good as it gets. Cohabitation is not a golden ticket to collaborative UC partnerships.