Many participating institutions view NSE as a way to expand and enhance their own resources through a network of inter institutional exchange which is under-pinned by a system of tuition reciprocity. The campus benefits by having access to an extensive array of courses, programs and educational opportunities as well as a nation-wide structure for curriculum sharing and joint program development.

Through NSE, campuses can combine departmental strengths to develop a program which allows students to expand the depth and breadth of their education by taking courses at another university with access to different courses, professors, resources, and research strengths. NSE's tuition reciprocity and common operating procedures facilitate and encourage this kind of activity where it is not practical to add courses or programs to current institutional offerings. Another advantage of NSE for individual departments is that exchange relationships do not have to be bilateral (institution:institution) or even (same number of students out of the department as accepted in). The campus NSE program as a whole can absorb the variance in numbers to make such arrangements possible.

Inter-institutional programming utilizing NSE may be accomplished through formal written agreements or verbal cooperative understandings as best meet the needs of the institution and the program. Several NSE universities are currently in partnerships with other member campuses in areas such as fashion and textile technology, landscape architecture, communication, agriculture, forestry, social work, and hospitality.

Are you interested in forging inter-institutional program relationships with colleagues at other colleges and universities in the United States or Canada? If exchanging students is a desirable outcome of such relationships, the National Student Exchange can assist by delivering a flexible, cost-effective process that lets you concentrate on the academic goals and objectives while NSE Central Office staff and your own campus NSE coordinator deliver the mechanism to make it work.

PARTNERSHIP EXAMPLES

SUNY College at Buffalo has been a member of the National Student Exchange since 1976. Over that period of time more than 1500 outgoing and incoming students have been afforded NSE exchange opportunities. In recent years, Buff State has approached its NSE membership as having nearly 200 branch campuses offering students a myriad of academic resources and opportunities.

A faculty member in the Hospitality Administration program took it upon herself to evaluate twelve comparable programs offered by other NSE campuses. She has now designed a printed articulation format for each to assist the department in helping students plan their academic and career future with exchange in mind. We now have eight to ten hospitality majors each year using NSE to attend campuses where they supplement our Buffalo State program with courses we don’t offer or are able to work in an area where they may see future employment such as Hawaii, Miami or Las Vegas.

When our Fashion Technology program was visited for certification, the chair of the visitation team pointed out that the textile department on her campus in North Carolina could present courses that would supplement our program providing options we would never be able to offer students. Each year three or four students take courses, through the NSE program, in the textile department at North Carolina State University.

"NSE can form the basis of an academic relationship among campuses from written formal agreements to casual exchange. NSE will take care of the administrative details; you can take care of the academic arrangements. Can you imagine the myriad of resources and opportunities offered by nearly 200 NSE member campuses that are not available on your campus? As an NSE member, they are all yours!"

Wendel Wickland
Former Director of Special Programs
and NSE Coordinator
SUNY College at Buffalo