GLCA is a consortium of thirteen liberal arts colleges formed in 1961. The colleges are Albion, Allegheny, Antioch, Denison, DePauw, Earlham, Hope, Kalamazoo, Kenyon, Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, Wabash, and Wooster.

Cooperation to strengthen the academic programs of the individual colleges has always been the GLCA's highest priority. An early focus was the creation of student opportunities abroad, particularly in non-Western areas. The basic logic which underlay these early international efforts led later to the establishment of off-campus study opportunities within the United States as well, and to other programs to assist faculty, leading up to the activities which currently carry the label “faculty development.” The colleges have also cooperated from the earliest days to improve their individual management, primarily through the exchange of comparative data. Government policy in more recent years has affected in important ways even independent colleges like those in the GLCA. Responding to those developments has also become an increasingly important area of GLCA activity.

GLCA is generally regarded as one of the most effective consortia in higher education. Its success comes primarily because of the willingness of faculty and administrators from all its member colleges to look beyond their individual campuses, and to give their time and talents to cooperative ventures.