The KU Agreement Process
1. A department or unit proposes a relationship with an international entity by completing the International Agreement Proposal Form. Please note that the form will ask for evidence of support from your unit leadership; you can either upload a PDF of an email into the form or forward an email to intl-agreement@ku.edu. International Affairs staff will not initiate an agreement without this evidence of unit leadership support. Agreement requests should be initiated by a KU administrator or faculty member, not by the prospective partner.
2. KU International Affairs (KUIA) receives and reviews the request, and works with the proposing department or unit to select the appropriate KU agreement text. The most commonly used document is the Agreement of Cooperation (AOC), which may also be referred to by prospective partners abroad as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In addition to English, KUIA has AOC templates in Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
3. If the prospective partner has already shared and would prefer to use their own agreement text, KUIA works with the Office of General Counsel (OGC) to approve the partner's text. Please note that use of a partner's text significantly increases the amount of time needed to complete an agreement, especially if the agreement is being completed in another language in addition to the English version. Any non-English-language agreements that do not originate at KU must be reviewed by KU personnel fluent in the target language before the documents can be circulated for signature.
4. KUIA completes restricted party screenings on the prospective partner and all document signatories, and works with the Office of Global Operations and Security (GOS) to ensure compliance with federal law.
5. KUIA provides an unsigned draft agreement to the requesting department or unit, and the department sends the draft to the prospective partner.
6. The partner circulates two to five copies of the draft (depending on type of agreement) for signature, and mails the signed documents back to KUIA.
7. The Senior Internationalization Officer signs the document.
8. KUIA submits the document to OGC, where it is signed by the Provost and/or Chancellor, depending on the agreement type.
9. One copy of the finalized agreement is mailed back to the partner.
10. If a new partner, the agreement is logged in the directory of international agreements.