In 1977, MHEC was created by Massachusetts legislators as a way for the state’s university system to consolidate their purchasing power in order to bring down prices and streamline the procurement process. By saving higher education time and money on their purchases, we allow them to do more for their students and serve them better.
Since then, we’ve expanded our membership to all New England public and private universities and colleges. Consequently, our purchasing power has grown, discounts have become greater, and we provide even more options in terms of products and services for everyone we work with.
All MHEC contracts are available to all our members, but working with higher education for nearly 50 years, we have a portfolio of more than fifty contracts especially designed to meet the needs of New England universities and colleges, inside and outside of the classroom. For example, a selection of these include:
- Life Science Research — Equipment, Chemicals, Supplies, and Services (D05)
- Mattresses, Hospitality Products and Services (C05)
- Graduation Regalia, Judicial Robes, Class Rings (B01)
To learn more about how to take advantage of all MHEC has to offer, please see our page, “How to use our contracts.”
Membership
Organizations can apply for membership for free by submitting an application. Once approved, staff from member organizations can then apply for a website login to access our full website. Membership and a website login will give you access to:
- our contract search tool for reviewing every detail of our contracts
- i-buy marketplace™ our web-based shopping tool
- 1st Monday, our monthly member news digest