Amid unprecedented novelty, complexity, turbulence, and conflict, it is apparent that a new education system is needed. Focused on a new outcome--postsecondary education completion with advanced competence--heretofore separate systems for early childhood, K-12 schools, and postsecondary education are being joined in P-16 pipelines and Cradle-Through-Career Education Systems. Both are new institutional designs, and they necessitate specially designed partnership systems. In contrast to voluntary, service-oriented partnerships and two previous generations of partnerships, third-generation, collaborative partnerships involve the private sector, and, with state leaders as key stakeholders, prioritize policy change. These third-generation partnerships are essential to the core missions and functions of colleges and universities, and postsecondary education is itself a target for new institutional designs. All such partnerships can be designed, implemented, evaluated, and continuously improved in relation to a new criterion: fit for purpose, in this context, and at this time.