Application Information

The Coalition welcomes interested institutions to apply for membership. Applicants are encouraged to explore the website to learn more about the Coalition’s mission, current membership, governance structure, conferences, and funded projects.

Eligibility Requirements

For U.S. institutions, any degree granting, higher education institution that is accredited by one of the six U.S. regional accrediting associations, or any U.S. college or university system office, is eligible for membership or affiliate membership. For non-U.S. institutions, any degree-granting higher education institution authorized to grant degrees by its respective national ministry of education or other official national agency or bureau is eligible. U.S. institutions that are not yet accredited may apply for provisional affiliate or member status on a case-by-case basis. Contact the Coalition’s Executive Director to discuss options.

Application Criteria

The criteria for institutional membership in the Coalition for Transformational Education are:

1. At least one educational initiative that is driven by or meaningfully involves faculty, intended (when fully implemented) to improve the wellbeing and career engagement of all graduates long after they complete their degrees, as described in the Coalition’s vision and mission statement. 

    • The Coalition accepts applications for membership describing initiatives that are in early stages (including pilot projects), as well as established programs.
    • Successful applications will link their initiative and its activities to lifelong student wellbeing and describe how it enhances a sense of identity, belonging, agency, and/or purpose among students.

2. An interest in being an active participant in a learning community committed to promoting transformational education broadly across the higher education landscape. Opportunities for participation include the Coalition’s National Conference, a free subscription to LearningWell magazine (as well as an opportunity to be featured in the magazine or on the affiliated podcast), workshops and/or webinars, and online working groups. These opportunities provide forums for the sharing of ideas, effective practices, measurable results, and programmatic successes and failures with other members and affiliates so that similar initiatives can be replicated or adapted on other campuses.

3. A plan to assess the effectiveness of the initiative that should include measures aligned with the Coalition’s focus on lifelong wellbeing.  Assessment of initiatives could therefore explore one or more of the following outcomes: sense of identity, purpose, agency of self-efficacy, and belonging; or strategies: emotionally supportive mentoring or experiential learning that connects curriculum to authentic real-world applications or problems.

4. A demonstration of commitment from senior leadership (e.g., President/Chancellor, Provost, or equivalent) to pursuing the goals of the Coalition’s mission at their institution. This senior institutional leader (or their delegate) is expected to participate in Coalition Leaders Meetings and encourage faculty engagement with the Coalition-related project. It is our hope that senior leaders will take an active part in shaping the future of the Coalition and its mission to bring transformational educational experiences to every student at scale.

*Criteria for affiliate membership include all the items above with the exception of 4 (a demonstrated commitment from senior institutional leadership).

*Criteria for affiliate membership include all the items above with the exception of 4 (a demonstrated commitment from senior institutional leadership)

Pre-Membership Meeting:

After the Coalition’s Executive Committee has reviewed the application and decided to move it forward, the Executive Director will schedule a conversation with prospective members to review outstanding questions about the project and align it as closely as possible with the Coalition’s mission to achieve lifelong student wellbeing.

Annual Progress Meeting

Once each year the Coalition’s Executive Director will schedule a conversation with the campus project leader at each affiliated or member institution to review together the progress made in the previous year toward the goals identified in the application and the plans for the next year.