The Inter-University Consortium for Doctoral Courses in Public Budgeting, Finance, and Financial Management is the first collaborative project for online doctoral courses in public affairs. This article provides an account of the consortium’s initiation, establishment, and operation for the pilot round.

The consortium fills a niche in doctoral education and opens up a path for smooth cooperation between universities by accessing instructors who are experts in subfields of public budgeting and finance. This article also analyses the results of a survey of students, liaison professors and leaders of the participating schools. The article aims to draw lessons from the pilot operation and to look into the future for improvements.

Though the consortium regards doctoral courses in the PBFM specialization, the problem is a common one, generic to all area specializations of Ph.D. programs in research universities. We hope the consortium can be a model for collaboration between universities going forward.