84 Int. J. Information Systems and Change Management, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2012 Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Building a successful partnership in higher education institutions David C. Chou Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 48197, USA E-mail: dchou@emich.edu Abstract: Educational partnership becomes a common practice in higher education. This study clarifies the practices of educational partnership in higher education institutions. A model of educational partnership has been built to identify its successful factors. The five determinants to the partnership’s success are the following: commitment to partnerships, curriculum and learning, quality and risk management, geographic and economic settings, and change management. This study can be guidance for those higher education institutions seeking and building successful partnership such as study abroad programme. Keywords: educational innovation; educational partnership; globalisation; study abroad programme; success model, educational outsourcing, change management. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Chou, D.C. (2012) ‘Building a successful partnership in higher education institutions’, Int. J. Information Systems and Change Management, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.84–97. Biographical notes: David C. Chou is a Professor of Computer Information Systems at Eastern Michigan University. He received his BC from Feng-Chia University, MS from National Taiwan University and MS and PhD from Georgia State University. He has published numerous papers in the field of information systems. He was the President of the Southwest Decision Sciences Institute (2007–2008). He is Editor for the Computer Standards and Interfaces, Associate Editor for the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, and Editor-in-Chief for the IJISCM. Currently, he serves as an editorial board member for five academic journals. 1 Introduction Educational partnership becomes a common practice in higher education. Higher education institutions established academic collaboration and partnership with other institutions for reasons of resource sharing, curriculum innovation, and reputation enhancement. The ultimate goals of educational partnership are to cut down college’s operating cost and to gain competitive advantage in higher education’s marketplace. Colleges in the world have provided various types of study abroad programmes on campuses for enhancing student’s global knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, colleges have established global partnerships for various purposes. This trend is