Member Services

ACU member institutions come together voluntarily under the umbrella of the ACU, all with the ultimate aim of enhancing their capacity to provide the best possible higher education for the benefit of the people and the economic health of their countries.

The ACU, in turn, provides its members with enhanced global visibility, a wide range of contacts and professional networking opportunities, scholarship and staff mobility programmes, cost-beneficial services, information, support and advocacy.

Visibility

One of the founding tenets of the ACU was to promote the interests of the universities in membership and, in the context of the ever increasing competition within, and globalisation of, higher education – a context in which students, staff and external employers all need ease of access to authoritative information about universities and the qualifications they offer – the ACU offers an unparalleled resource.

In a world in which there is an increasing number of bogus 'universities', membership of the ACU provides an opportunity for bona fide institutions, which are approved by their government to offer a range of higher education qualifications, to promote themselves and advertise their courses and research opportunities.

Global Contacts and Networking

As global networking becomes ever more important in both teaching and research, the ACU is developing a unique online searchable database of contacts to facilitate this. Our Course Finder service also introduces students to the range of courses that our member institutions offer.

The ACU has also established a number of Professional Networks for practitioners in key functional areas including: Human Resource Management; Public Relations, Marketing and Communications; Libraries and Information; Research Management; and Extension and Community Engagement. These networks allow members to share knowledge and good practice, provide for debate and discussion on key policy and operational issues, and ensure that the ACU maintains strong links with its members at multiple levels.

The ACU's Gender Programme has been active since 1985 and continues in its drive to enhance the capacity and increase the participation and profile of women in the leadership and management of higher education. It, too, is being developed into a professional network of a slightly different nature.

Scholarships and staff mobility

Helping staff and students learn from each other is at the heart of the ACU's mission. We are leading the way in supporting a new fund for Commonwealth Scholarships in developing countries, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan in 2009; and we have boosted our own Endowment Fund, which supports mobility between staff and nominees of member institutions. The ACU also manages substantial scholarships programmes on behalf of external donors, such as the Commonwealth and Marshall Scholarships of the UK Government, which will distribute almost £20 million in 2008-09. Further information on the awards schemes provided and/or administered by the ACU is available via these links: Fellowships and Staff Mobility; Commonwealth Scholarships; Marshall Scholarships.

Information, Support and Advocacy

The ACU keeps members well-informed about issues of hot debate through our information and briefing services. The Policy Research Unit, among others, keeps a watchful eye on the development of key issues and trends in higher education management and leadership across the globe and alerts our members to them though such means as the regular, electronic VC-Net, the Bulletin and a wide range of longer, analytical reports and publications. These are invaluable additional tools for those responsible for developing institutional strategy.

At an institutional level, the Benchmarking Programme (for which there is an additional charge) offers a unique and cost-effective opportunity for participating universities to compare their key management processes with those in a range of other universities.

A number of 'support' schemes and services are available to member institutions which can often provide substantial cost savings. The Low Cost Journals Scheme enables libraries in our member universities to order print copy journals through the ACU, typically at a discount of around 75-80% (25-20% of the original cover price). 

The ACU also provide a venue and experienced invigilators for institutions wishing to conduct examinations in central London.

Recruitment and Advertising

jobs.ac.uk is the preferred partner for ACU member advertising, providing members with discounted recruitment advertising.  ACU has merged its international audience with jobs.ac.uk's 644,000+ jobseekers, providing members with access to the largest online higher education audience in the UK and beyond.