International Membership

EDUCAUSE has never claimed to be an international organization, though it certainly values the participation of its international members and fully recognizes the need to draw on the knowledge and innovations of other countries. Just as students and scholars throughout the world expand learning through study abroad, so can members of our community from all countries advance our institutions by promoting the intelligent use of information technology through understanding and sharing. It is important, however,to note that the two parent organizations of EDUCAUSE evolved as national professional organizations, holding domestic conferences and explaining the American higher education position to the various governmental and regulatory agencies in this country. These activities are critical to U.S. members and, understandably, cannot be scaled to work similarly in other countries. For this reason, the institutional membership dues are substantially reduced because EDUCAUSE cannot now—nor does it ever expect to—provide equivalent services for its international members.

Fact: Eleven percent of all EDUCAUSE members are international, with approximately one-third of these being Canadian. At the annual conference, international participants typically represent more than 40 different countries and comprise 9 percent of the participants.

International membership in EDUCAUSE is available to any non-U.S. institution of higher education. International members enjoy the same benefits as U.S. institutions, including discounted registration for annual, regional, and other events and services; complimentary copies of books and other EDUCAUSE publications, special e-mail alerts, and policy briefs; free subscriptions to EDUCAUSE Review and EDUCAUSE Quarterly (EQ); eligibility to participate in the Identity Management Services Program for discounted products and services; and other benefits. Member representatives may serve on advisory and program committees, work on special topic task forces, present at the annual and regional conferences, review conference session proposals, submit articles for EQ, contribute effective practices, and connect with colleagues of similar interests and experience through the Peer Directory.

Details about member benefits can be found at http://www.educause.edu/InstitutionalMembership/581.

Fact: In the 2007 Member Satisfaction Survey, all participants were asked to respond to the question “The cost of participation in EDUCAUSE is fully justified by the benefits received.” Responses were measured on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 7 being “strongly agree.” International respondents gave this an average response of 5.56, compared to the U.S. response of 5.63.

Membership for U.S. institutions is determined by their Carnegie Classification (a methodology for classifying colleges and universities in terms of their mission and complexity) and by their full-time student enrollments. Clearly, non-U.S. institutions do not have any Carnegie Classification. Furthermore, international members of EDUCAUSE do not benefit from the efforts of the Washington, D.C., office in explaining the American higher education position to the various U.S. governmental and regulatory agencies. Therefore, international institutions should not be expected to share in the cost of that effort. In determining dues at the time EDUCAUSE was formed, since international members are often prevented from actively participating in many events and services due to geography, charging them equivalent fees seemed inappropriate.

While Canadian institutions are considered international, they pay a different dues rate than the flat fee. Canada’s geographic proximity and many of the events make them similar to U.S. institutions, yet many EDUCAUSE programs are irrelevant to Canadian institutions. Because of these contrasting realities, they pay their dues on a graduated scale based on student enrollments as if they were one of the smallest institutions in the United States, even though they include some of the largest and most complex institutions in the world. In effect, Canadian institutions pay about half of what comparable U.S. institutions would pay. This dues situation was carefully analyzed at the time EDUCAUSE was formed, and most Canadian institutions received a dues decrease.

All non-Canadian international institutions pay a flat fee of $1,005 annually for the 2007–2008 academic year. International institutions, regardless of their size and complexity, pay the same annual fee of $1,005, compared to the largest U.S. research universities that pay $7,730 annually.

Check the name of the organization in the EDUCAUSE Institutional member directory at http://www.educause.edu/MemberDirectory/672. The name, title, contact information, and member status for each representative is provided. Alternatively, you may want to review the international participation list of 39 countries and 245 international institutions that belong to EDUCAUSE at http://www.educause.edu/memdir/785.

Fact: There are 245 international members of EDUCAUSE: 225 colleges and universities, 8 associations or other organizations, and 12 corporations.

Each international member institution designates one primary, three participating, and five subscribing representatives. Primary and participating representatives receive free subscriptions to EQ and EDUCAUSE Review; subscribing representatives receive a free subscription to EDUCAUSE Review. In addition, the primary representative votes in the annual EDUCAUSE Board of Directors election, designates primary and subscribing representatives, has an institutional voice in the annual Core Data Service and Current Issues surveys, and receives important communications for higher education information technology leaders. All persons affiliated with a member institution receive discounted conference registration fees and reduced prices on books, and designated member representatives are given priority over nonmembers for volunteer service on EDUCAUSE advisory and program committees. As explained in #3 above, Canadian institutions have different dues from other international institutions, and the actual numbers of participating and subscribing representatives will vary based on institutional size.

Fact: Many international and U.S. institutions do not use their full allotment of representatives and therefore do not receive all of the benefits (including free magazine subscriptions) for the maximum number of individuals on campus. You can check your institution’s allocation of representatives at http://www.educause.edu/MemberRepresentatives/1052.

The involvement of international professionals in EDUCAUSE activities, as stated earlier, accounts for about 9 percent of the annual conference, with approximately the same percentage accounting for session proposals submitted as accepted. Eight percent of subscribers to the EDUCAUSE Chief Information Officers (CIO) discussion group listserv are international, representing 23 countries. On average, international members represent approximately 2 percent of participation on committees, as authors, and as attendees at regional conferences, but when there are online or asynchronous opportunities such as the EDUCAUSE Live! Web seminar series, the international participation is far greater.

As stated in #2 above, member representatives may serve on advisory and program committees, work on special topic task forces, present at the annual and regional conferences, review conference session proposals, submit articles for EQ, contribute effective practices, and connect with colleagues of similar interests and experience through the Peer Directory.

In terms of satisfaction, international participants rate EDUCAUSE as well as or better than U.S. participants on most measures. The items that international members find to be less satisfying have to do with opportunities in which participation is inhibited by geography, such as regional conferences or the annual conference. The difference in satisfaction on these items is understandable and is the reason for the discount in dues charged.