Each collaboration will include members of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and members of an intermediary organization that seeks to help higher education policymakers and practitioners identify, understand, and apply research evidence. The primary goals of these collaborations are to 1) advance the production of high-quality research on issues facing higher education administration, including the need to reduce inequality, and 2) improve linkages between the producers and users of higher education research. Each collaboration will be organized around a primary focus, such as financial aid, college access, and state higher education policies. Meetings of the collaborations will be structured to help members of both groups (ASHE and the partner intermediary) better understand the knowledge needs and perspectives of the other organization and to identify shared goals. The collaborations will be featured at ASHE’s 2015 Annual Meeting, the theme of which is Inequality and Higher Education.
Intermediary organizations have the potential to play an important role in connecting research in higher education to policy and practice, but too often these organizations have limited capacity to effectively play this role. This initiative will build that capacity by advancing five research-practice collaborations.
