Led by Harvard, Boston consortium launches job search site

In collegiately dense Boston, colleges and universities are teaming up to fill open positions through a consortium website, the Boston Globe reports. The New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium is free to job seekers and includes opening for everyone from faculty to doctors, lab techs, administrators and support staff.

``This will enable us to have an integrated database for many institutions in the area," said Laura Fisher , associate dean of the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences . ``It is a way to initiate a job search. The database goes beyond jobs because it gives people a sense of what the region offers. Anyone can access it, not just someone we would like to recruit."

Such consortia make sense for college-rich geographic areas like Boston. Other such efforts have already been launched in New York, New Jersey and California. Initiated by Harvard University , the site was inspired by similar efforts in California and the New York-New Jersey region, said Jacqueline Hogan , director of the consortium. She said the site should make it easier for academia to place dual-career couples in faculty, administrative, or staff positions.

``The fact that places like Stanford, Princeton . . . have joined consortiums speaks to the fact that this is a problem for higher education right now, and everyone is trying to address it," said Evelyn Hammonds , senior vice provost for faculty development at Harvard.

Harvard University made an initial investment of about $200,000 to launch the job site, which includes listings from public and private colleges, hospitals and even community colleges.