What are they? Who are they? And how can they help me? By Kevin Beisser

Finding the best language program, community college, or University that meets your diverse needs can be extremely difficult.  One new trend that is becoming more and more prevalent and helpful to students who are looking for a place to study is a consortium.  You're probably saying to yourself what is a consortium?  An educational consortium is a group of educational institutions that come together for a common good.  Currently the most popular consortiums are destination consortiums and educational type consortiums.

Destination consortiums promote the location of study and then give you all of the educational opportunities within that location.  This is a great way to pick a place to study because a major part of your decision is location.  Are you looking for a University or ESL program in a large metropolitan area or are you looking for a Tech school or college in a small town?  What types of things are available to you when you are not studying?  If you are studying agriculture or business you may want to be in an area which will give you opportunities when you are finished studying or the possibility of doing an internship while you are studying.  If you are studying Music for example you may want to know if the area has a symphony orchestra. Finding a location where you will be happy will only help to make you more successful in your studies and looking at consortiums will help you find that location and then find what types of opportunities are available within that location. 

The second type of consortium is an educational type consortium.  An educational type consortium is a consortium of like minded institutions like Intensive English Programs or Community Colleges.  The good thing about educational type consortiums like UCIEP (University and College Intensive English Programs) www.uciep.org, AAIEP (American Association of Intensive English Programs) www.aaiep.org, or AACC (American Association of Community Colleges) www.aacc.nche.edu is that they usually have high standards for institutions to become members of their consortium.  This is a big benefit to you as a prospective student because it weeds out institutions that are not of a high quality.  For example according to UCIEP its purpose is the advancement of professional standards and quality instruction in intensive English programs at universities and colleges in the United States. The member programs are committed to the consortium's effort to ensure that students receive the highest quality intensive English instruction from trained, professional teachers.  Hence, if you choose an ESL program that is a member of UCIEP you know that the program is located in and managed by a University or College, has a quality curriculum, and has a professional staff. 

These types of consortiums can also help you find out about a particular educational system without feeling the pressure of asking a specific institution what exactly they do.  AACC for example can help students get more information about what a community college is and dispel the many misleading myths.  For instance did you know that Community Colleges serve almost half of the undergraduate students in the United States?  Did you also know that after completing a 2 year degree at a community or technical college many have agreements with colleges and Universities that make transferring a simple process.

Once you get to the United States, Canada, or elsewhere consortiums continue to help you behind the scenes.  As new laws are passed through government, consortiums are your eyes and ears, they watch for laws that may unknowingly affect International Students and contact politicians to make sure all laws are international student friendly and to promote studying in their state.  In addition consortiums often work with government to propose and support new laws that help make the visa process and your stay as easy as possible and to let people in government know how important you as an international student are to our communities. A good example of this is after talking with StudyWisconsin representatives in May 2009, Jim Doyle the Governor of the State of Wisconsin said in a letter to Education USA advisors globally; "The presence of International students in our communities, rural or urban, small or large, is highly valued and greatly contributes to the richness of the educational experience and quality of life for all Wisconsin residents." 

As you can see by the many different ways consortiums help to educate prospective international students on all of the different study opportunities there are in many diverse locations as well as help you in many unseen ways once you arrive at your chosen destination. Consortiums are a wonderful and effective way to start the process of choosing the best educational experience for you.

Kevin Beisser is Assistant Director for Student Services at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ESL Programs