The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, or ACCU, is a voluntary association of delegates from Catholic institutions of higher learning. It was founded in 1899 by fifty-three delegates from Catholic colleges across the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Currently the association includes more than 90% of accredited Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 institutions of higher learning in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 as well as over twenty international universities.

The president or rector of each participating institution serves as voting representative to the ACCU. There is also collaboration with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...

, the National Catholic Educational Association

National Catholic Educational Association

The National Catholic Educational Association is a private professional educational association of over 200,000 educators in Catholic schools, universities, and religious education programs...

and various other agencies.