In August 2024, the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) reached a significant milestone with its expansion to 18 member institutions. This expansion represents not just an increase in numbers, but a dramatic amplification of the alliance's collective intellectual capacity and collaborative potential.
The newly expanded BTAA now stands as an unparalleled force in American higher education, boasting impressive statistics that speak to its extraordinary scale:
- 75,000 instructional staff sharing knowledge and expertise
- 810,000 students benefiting from collaborative academic environments
- $17.4 billion in annual research expenditures driving innovation
- 145 million library volumes accessible across the network
The BIG Collection
Perhaps one of the most ambitious projects underway within the BTAA is the creation of the “BIG Collection”. For five years, dedicated staff across member institutions have been meticulously building the infrastructure needed to unify their distinct collections into a single, cohesive collection network.
When complete, this unified collection will represent approximately 25% of all print titles in North America, making it the third-largest library collection globally—surpassed only by the Library of Congress and the British Library. This achievement transforms how scholars across these institutions access and utilize information resources.
Building on a Legacy of Cooperation
The spirit of collaboration that drives today's BTAA can be traced back to 1956, when Big Ten university presidents gathered at Chicago's University Club to establish what would become the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). This visionary meeting laid the groundwork for what one observer called the "world's greatest common market in education."
That founding principle—that cooperation yields greater results than competition—remains as relevant today as it was nearly seven decades ago.
Leveraging Scale for Greater Impact
What makes the BTAA particularly fascinating is how it harnesses its immense scale to tackle challenges no single institution could address alone. The alliance can build crucial infrastructure and services while maintaining a steadfast commitment to the common good, ensuring that benefits extend broadly across the academic landscape.
This approach to consortia decision-making opens numerous possibilities for future collaboration, including:
- Developing shared research infrastructure
- Transforming scholarly communication systems
- Creating frameworks for sharing specialized expertise across institutions
- Pursuing additional innovative partnerships that serve the collective academic mission
As the BTAA embraces its expanded membership, the power of 18 united institutions promises to reshape higher education collaboration for decades to come.
References
https://today.usc.edu/academic-excellence-to-the-power-of-ten/
https://btaa.org/docs/default-source/news-pub/historyofcic3abf.pdf?sfvrsn=f0e4c898_2