Academic Partnerships

Founded by Randy Best, Dallas-based Academic Partnerships partners with public universities to deliver students full degree programs online. Academic Partnerships helps universities increase access by taking quality of a public university to scale. It provides the technology, marketing, student recruitment and faculty support necessary to serve online students. Academic Partnerships is guided by the principle that the opportunities presented through distance learning make higher education more accessible and achievable for students in the U.S. and globally.

Whitney University System

Founded by Randy Best, Miami-based Whitney University System forms strategic partnerships with top universities across Latin America to help them expand access to higher education through technology. Whitney provides outsourcing services in distance learning technologies, marketing, student recruitment, student services, and implements best practices through a team of consultants who specialize in the optimization of infrastructure and administrative and financial services. With regional offices in three countries, Whitney provides services to high quality universities across Latin America.

Red Ilumno

Whitney University System launched Red Ilumno, Sistema Universitario de las Americas, a non-profit network of nine universities committed to transforming higher education in Latin America by redefining access and affordability. Through its Centers of Excellence, Red Ilumno shares best practices on academic quality, distance learning and innovation. The network promotes acquisition of 21st skill for its students and professional development for faculty members. Initially, member universities of Red Ilumno have committed over US$31 million in scholarships annually benefitting nearly 40,000 students.

Future of State Universities Conference

Sponsored by Academic Partnerships in October 2011, Future of State Universities Conference brought together thought leaders from across America and around the world, leadership of public universities, state governors and other policy makers to discuss the emergence of new models that can help public universities flourish in the future. Speakers addressed, with insight and directness, the core components that are changing the most from historic norms: tuition and sources of revenue, instructional delivery and the role of a professor, students’ expectations and access, college readiness, regulatory environment and internationalization. Courses of action were considered that will enable public universities to succeed in a new reality.