About Us

Our Mission

• Promote mutual understanding and friendship through bilateral and multilateral programs and activities that make significant contributions toward higher education in Belize and that enhance the international dimension of member institutions through the cumulative experiences of students, faculty, staff, and administrators.
• Collaborate in research, teaching, curricular, and library development. Promote faculty, staff, and student exchanges among member institutions.
• Implement systematic and comprehensive planning of educational development efforts.
• Develop human and financial resources to assist in meeting Belizean needs in higher education.
• Identify financial aid for students.
• Advance the professionalization of Belizean higher education.
• Encourage study abroad programs in Belize for faculty, staff, and students.

COBEC Goals

1. Implement short-term programs that target specific professional development needs of higher education faculty, staff, and administrators
2. Provide advanced degree training for individual faculty, staff, and administrators from Belizean institutions
3. Address institutional resource needs related to technology, libraries, laboratories
4. Address curriculum development needs of all COBEC institutions, including programs such as internationalizing the curriculum and area studies
5. Develop programs that address student needs related to academic advisement and student support services.
6. Organize a clearinghouse for donations of equipment and educational materials to Belizean institutions
7. Participate in the development of quality assurance initiatives for Belizean institutions
8. Broaden the base of Belizean institutions engaged in COBEC-sponsored activities
9. Pursue active research agendas involving Belizean and non-Belizean faculty, administrators, and students
10. Work with ATLIB to conduct a needs assessment
11. Strengthen collaboration among all COBEC institutions
12. Assist Belizean institutions in meeting accreditation criteria
13. Facilitate the forging of articulation agreements between Belizean and non-Belizean member institutions
14. Formally assess the impact of scholarship support by non-Belizean institutions on the achievement of staff development goals of Belizean institutions

A Brief History of COBEC

By Tracy Harrington

The Consortium for Belize Educational Cooperation (COBEC) might well be a unique organization among higher education collaboratives. It includes all the significant tertiary-level institutions in Belize and most U.S. higher education institutions engaged in projects or activities in Belize. It is a minimally structured organization that has survived and thrived, without external funding, through changes in political and educational leadership in Belize and through budgetary retrenchment and crises in both Belize and the U.S. Despite its low profile and general goals, it has had a significant and continuing impact on the structure and quality of higher education in Belize and on the internationalization of U.S. member institutions.

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