DENTON (UNT), Texas -- The University of North Texas is part of a new consortia partnership for Texas, Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP): Excellence for Everyone as a Nation Goes to College. LEAP Texas is a voluntary coalition that includes more than 60 other institutions of higher education in Texas.

The consortium is a national initiative created by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The LEAP Texas coalition has a common purpose and is committed to the fundamental principle of the LEAP initiative: championing the importance of a 21st century education for individuals and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality.

"AAC&U and Texas educators are aligned in our commitment to help all students achieve both broad learning about the world they inherit -- through studies in science, humanities, the arts and the social sciences -- and also the critical skills they need to help create solutions for our future," AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider said. "Given these shared commitments, we are delighted to work with LEAP Texas to ensure that Texas college students receive the best possible preparation for work, citizenship and flourishing lives."
Texas institutions face numerous challenges: multiple institutional structures and systems, a diverse and growing student population, growing demands for accountability, a new core curriculum for higher education, and rapidly changing technology and globalization. LEAP Texas sees the opportunity for significant large scale collaboration to address these challenges.

"We are pleased to be a part of this state-wide collaborative effort," Celia Williamson, vice provost for transfer articulation said. "This will help UNT stay connected to the national efforts in undergraduate education and means that we will be actively contributing to that effort, through our own work in the core curriculum."
As the initiative continues to expand, it will focus on three key areas: leveraging the newly designed Texas Core Curriculum for Higher Education for improvement in undergraduate education; creating a capacity for large-scare, inter-institutional collaboration in robust and authentic assessment; and embedding high-impact practices in the undergraduate curriculum.

For more information about the LEAP Texas visit the Association of American Colleges and Universities website.