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Cooperative purchasing has become a staple in higher education procurement, aggregating demand across institutions to deliver volume discounts and streamlining procurement to reduce administrative overhead. With rising costs, limited staff time, and growing complexity, finding the right education purchasing cooperatives can yield significant results.
Why are institutions embracing education purchasing cooperatives in 2026? A recent survey summarizes it well. Here’s what your peers say they see as the primary benefits of cooperative purchasing:
While cost savings top the list, you can see there’s a greater value beyond saving money.
“We were spending 6-8 weeks running competitive solicitations for lab equipment that other universities had already vetted extensively. Moving to cooperative contracts cut our procurement timeline by 70% for these purchases.” — Procurement Director at a mid-sized University.
Not all education purchasing cooperatives are structured similarly, and evaluating partners requires more than comparing contract counts.
Education-specific expertise is a critical differentiator. Cooperatives that focus on education understand academic governance, public-sector compliance requirements, and category needs that are unique to colleges and universities.
Competitive solicitation and compliance standards should be clearly documented and aligned with your audit requirements. Transparency in how contracts are awarded and managed directly affects your procurement risk.
Governance and ownership structure influence long-term alignment. Nonprofits and member-driven models tend to prioritize outcomes differently than for-profit organizations.
Academic institutions have unique needs that are different from those of corporations and governmental agencies. Procurement often spans public accessibility and highly secure and detailed research. Specific goods may be needed to meet grants from providers like NIH or NSF. Procurement may also have institutional governance regarding diversity and sustainability.
You want to work with a cooperative that can help you meet all of these goals across a broad selection of categories.
HIGHER EDUCATION PROCUREMENT CATEGORIES | ||
Athletics | Professional Services | |
Food and food services | Financial Services | |
Office and classrooms | Logistics and Travel | |
Facilities and MRO | Research | |
Information Technology (IT) | Lab and Scientific | |
It’s not uncommon for some higher education institutions to work with several cooperatives, depending on their specific needs. Here is the 2026 list of purchasing cooperatives that academic institutions tend to evaluate:
As you can see, you have choices. However, when you partner with E&I Cooperative Services, you work with procurement specialists in the education sector. E&I’s sole focus on education means offering cooperative agreements that are tailored to the needs of higher education. Agreements are designed with academic calendars, institutional governance, and education-specific compliance requirements in mind. Supplier selection and contract terms align closely with the operational realities of colleges and universities.
Multi-sector cooperatives must prioritize flexibility across diverse public-sector needs. While this can offer scale, it may also result in contracts that are less tailored to higher education procurement requirements.
As of 2026, E&I serves more than 6,200 member institutions with hundreds of available cooperative contracts that total up to more than $3 billion in annual spend. Combining demands across member institutions results in significant volume discounts, often reflecting savings of 10% to 15% or more.
As a nonprofit, E&I Cooperative Services also offers patronage refunds based on member usage of its contracts. Annually, these refunds typically total several million dollars.
Learn more about E&I’s mission and how E&I Cooperative Services serves higher education.