With intentional planning, institutional agreements can successfully support important goals of the university and ensure that our students, faculty, staff, and peers have the opportunity for greater collaboration. Prior to initiating a new agreement, units and departments should review the guidelines below.

Agreement Process

1. Initiate a Conversation with Stakeholders Early

Campus units wishing to establish a new agreement should ensure that all relevant parties in their department, college, or unit have been consulted and support the proposed agreement as early in the process as possible. To ensure that maximum mutual benefit, consider the following:

Quality and academic standing of the potential partner.
Alignment with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s strategic goals.
Value of the linkage to the potential partner and/or the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Institutional support and commitment within the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Sustainable capacity is available to support the longevity of the partnership.
Commitment to a balanced exchange of students between institutions (for proposed student exchange agreements).

External institutions wishing to initiate an agreement with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign should first reach out to the department they wish to collaborate with to ensure there is mutual interest in forming a relationship.

2. Request (or Renew/Amend) an Agreement

Once all relevant parties have been consulted, units should submit a request using one of the agreement templates provided by Global Relations. All agreements will be reviewed initially by Global Relations and any agreement establishing student mobility will be reviewed by International Safety and Security.

3. Finalize & Sign the Agreement

For any agreement between the university and a foreign institution to be executed, the comptroller of the university (or a duly appointed proxy) should be the last person to approve and sign.

It is expected that all partner signatures will be secured before the agreement is routed for signatures within the university. If the other party does not have DocuSign or have access to a scanner, they can type their name on the contract and follow that up with an email confirming approval of the contract. If the partner has access to a scanner, it is preferred that a scanned wet signature is applied. DocuSign will be accepted in all cases per OBFS Policy 1.3.5.

Record Keeping

Once fully executed, Global Relations will provide a copy of the agreement to the requesting unit via email. As official document of the university, digital copies of agreements are also archived in myResearch Portal maintained by the Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) and/or in Contracts+ maintained by OBFS.

Measuring Impact

Units and departments are encouraged to develop metrics to measure agreement performance, successes, and/or challenges to ensure outcomes remain mutually beneficial for all parties.