*** Please Allow At Least 4 Weeks for Agreement Review ***
Purpose
All Academic Agreements should be submitted through the TWU Service Center for Provost signature, regardless of whether additional OGC review is required. Academic Agreements are agreements intended to support the academic activities of the institution and include, but are not limited to the following:
- Clinical Affiliation Agreements,
- Non-Clinical Affiliation Agreements (internship agreements for non-clinical student work),
- MOUs for academic purposes or with other educational institutions,
- Research and Sponsored Program Agreements,
- Partnership Agreements with other educational institutions,
- Non-Disclosure Agreements for academic purposes, and
- Data Sharing Agreements for academic purposes.
Some Academic agreements receive additional processing through the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) to look for potential legal issues when the academic agreement is on a non-TWU entity's template or the non TWU entity has suggested edits to TWU's Standard Form Agreement Templates.
Only the legality of a proposed agreement is reviewed by OGC. Individual departments submitting agreements for review and/or signature are responsible for determining if their departments, faculty, and/or students can abide by the technical requirements outlined within the agreement. A submitting department's Dean, Director, or Fieldwork Coordinator should review ALL submitted academic agreements prior to submission and make any proposed edits to the technical requirements before the department submits the agreement for review and/or signature. Submission of an academic agreement through this site will serve as attestation to the Provost that the submitting department's Dean, Director, or Fieldwork Coordinator has reviewed the agreement and agrees to the technical requirements outlined in the agreement. If, in reviewing the agreement before submission, the Dean, Director, or Fieldwork Coordinator notices an issue with the technical requirements, he or she should use Track Changes in Word to document the issue and propose new language that is acceptable to the department before submitting the agreement for review. OGC will then add any additional edits that may be necessary to the legal terms of the agreement before returning the agreement back to the department to obtain approval by the facility.
Getting Started
The OGC does not initiate contact with any facility or entity about initiating the agreement process. Individual TWU departments must initiate contact with the desired facility or entity and determine whether the facility or entity will accept the TWU Standard Form Agreement (SFA) Template or if the facility or entity prefers to use its own agreement template.
If the facility or entity is amenable to using TWU's SFA template, please send them a copy of the appropriate TWU SFA template, located in the list of files to the right of this text on your screen. Additional templates are available from the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, upon request.
If the facility or entity prefers to use its own template, please request that the facility send you an electronic “Word” version of the template rather than a "pdf" version and that the Word version is editable. It is much easier, faster, and clearer to make necessary edits to the proposed agreement in Word. Please do not convert a pdf version of the facility or entity's agreement template into a Word version to submit for review or signature. Doing so creates a formatting nightmare during the review process, and OGC will return the agreement to the submitter to address the formatting issues before reviewing the agreement. If a facility or entity is hesitant to provide a Word version of their agreement, please assure the facility or entity that TWU will use the Track Changes feature in Word to ensure that the facility or entity can clearly identify and review any changes suggested by TWU.
Remember, before submitting an agreement that was created using a facility or entity's template or using a TWU SFA that has been edited by the facility for review, the agreement must first be reviewed by the program's Dean, Director, or Fieldwork Coordinator to check for technical requirements of the agreement.
Prior to Submission Checklist:
The following Checklist is used by Academic Affairs and OGC to determine whether an agreement is ready for legal sufficiency review. Please ensure that the following items are completed before submitting an academic agreement for legal sufficiency review or Provost signature. If the following items are not completed correctly, the agreement will be returned to the submitter to fix the issue before the agreement will receive review or be submitted to the Provost for signature.
- The Texas Woman’s University name should be spelled correctly and located somewhere on the first page of the agreement.
- The name of the Hospital/Facility/Entity should be somewhere on the first page of the agreement, likely in the same paragraph as TWU’s name.
- The Effective Date is the date that the agreement starts. The Effective date should be filled in if there is a blank to fill in a particular date somewhere in the agreement, typically on the first page. Alternatively, the agreement may contain a statement saying that the agreement is effective as of the date it is signed by both parties. Either is acceptable.
- The Term Length explains how long the agreement lasts. The Term Length should be stated somewhere in the agreement. It may be listed as a number of years, a specific date range, or may have only a specified termination date. Any of these options are acceptable. OGC recommends that an initial term, plus any extensions or renewal terms, not exceed 5 or 6 years.
- The Notice Information contains information about who at TWU should be notified by the Hospital/Facility if the Hospital/Facility needs to notify the University about something pertaining to the agreement or a student participating at the Hospital/Facility. The Notice Information should be filled in completely and accurately with your department's information including the P.O. box. There may or may not be a notice information section in the agreement; if there is not one, you do not need to add one. If there is one, make sure that the notice information for TWU is someone in your department with the authority to respond to the notice.
- The Signature Line should state the correct name and title of the designated TWU signatory. This should always include the current Provost’s name and title, unless another signatory is designated by the Provost.
- Fill in any other blanks with the requested information and check any boxes that may need to be checked.
- The submission must be a Word document or PDF, depending on whether you are submitting a TWU standard form template or the Hospital/Facility’s template.
- If the Hospital/Facility has agreed to use TWU’s Standard Form template, and has not suggested edits to the template, and you have already obtained the signature of the Hospital/Facility, then you may submit a PDF of the affiliation agreement.
- If you are submitting an affiliation agreement that is on the Hospital/Facility’s template, or if the Hospital/Facility has agreed to use TWU’s template, but has suggested edits to the template, then you must submit a Word document. PDF’s will be sent back to the submitter. PDFs that have been converted to Word, but retain formatting issues created by the conversion will be sent back to the submitter.
- Submissions must include all referenced exhibits, attachments, schedules or other documents.
Submission
When you are ready to submit an affiliation agreement for OGC review and/or Provost signature, scroll to the top of this screen and click on the top grey box to the right of this text that says "Request Service". Fill out all of the applicable information in the form that pops up. Click on the "?" buttons in any field to read more information about how to fill in that section of the form. At the end of the form, there is a section called "Attachment". Be sure to upload the Word version of the affiliation agreement you would like reviewed here, if you are submitting an agreement that is not a TWU SFA or if the facility or entity has proposed edits to the TWU SFA.
Using TWU's Standard Form Agreement Templates
If a facility or entity agrees to the terms in TWU's SFA, they (or you) should fill in all highlighted information and remove the highlighting. The facility or entity's authorized representative should sign the agreement and return a copy to you. You should then submit the agreement for final signature by following the "Submission" instructions above. Once the Provost has signed the agreement, a fully executed copy will be uploaded into your ticket and you will be notified that the agreement is ready for you to download. Save a copy of the fully executed agreement for your department's records and forward a fully executed copy back to the facility or entity.
Using an Edited TWU SFA or Non-TWU Facility or Entity's Template
If the facility or entity wants to make edits to TWU's SFA template, they may make any proposed edits using the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word, which should already be activated and locked within the template. The facility should return a copy of the SFA with their proposed edits to you. You will then submit the edited agreement template by following the "Submission" instructions above. OGC will review the facility or entity's suggested edits to the agreement, approve, deny, or respond using the Track Changes feature, and upload the edits to the facility or entity's edits into your ticket and notify you that it is ready for you to download. You will then download OGC's response to the edits and forward the agreement back to the facility so they may review TWU's responses to their proposed edits. This process will continue until TWU and the facility agree on mutually acceptable terms.
If the facility accepts TWU's proposed revisions, the submitter will notify OGC using the "Comment" button at the bottom of the ticket and select the person to notify. The submitter will then make a note that the facility or entity approves the edits and submit the comment. OGC will mark the agreement "Approved as to Legal Form", and forward it for Provost signature. Academic Affairs will upload a copy of the agreement with the Provost's signature for the submitter to download.
If a facility or entity would prefer to use their own template, upload the template by following the "Submission" instructions above. (Be sure to follow the instructions under "Prior to Submission" above before submitting.) OGC will review the template and make any proposed edits using Track Changes in Word. OGC will then upload the edited agreement into the ticket and notify the submitter that it is ready for download. The submitter will download the edited version and send it to their contact at the facility or entity for review. If the facility or entity approves, the submitter will use the "Comment" button at the bottom of the ticket and select the person to notify. The submitter will then make a note that the facility or entity approves the edits and submit the comment. OGC will mark the agreement "Approved as to Legal Form", and forward for Provost signature. Academic Affairs will upload a copy of the agreement with the Provost's signature for the submitter to download.
Once the submitter downloads the TWU-signed copy, they should forward the TWU-signed copy to their contact at the facility and request a fully executed copy (signed by TWU and the facility or entity) in return. The submitter is responsible for securing a fully executed agreement from the facility or entity. Upon receipt of a fully executed agreement , the submitter should upload the fully executed copy into the ticket and send a note to Academic Affairs using the "Comment" button at the bottom of the ticket to let them know that the fully executed agreement has been uploaded.
Hard Copies
If a facility or entity prefers to receive hard copies of signed agreements, indicate how many must be returned to the facility. Please make a note of this under "Additional Information" when requesting service. The Provost sign the desired number of hard copies and Academic Affairs will send the signed copies to you via inter-office mail. Once you receive the fully executed hard copy back from the facility or entity, scan the agreement and upload it into the ticket. Then send a note to Academic Affairs using the "Comment" button to let them know that the fully executed agreement has been uploaded.
Renewals and Amendments
If you are submitting a request to renew an existing agreement that will be expiring soon, complete the TWU SFA Renewal Template located in the list of files to the right of this text on your screen. Fill in the highlighted information, save the document as a pdf, and attach it to the front of the existing agreement in Adobe and save the combined file as a new document. Send the renewal and existing agreement document to the facility or entity for their signature. Once you have received a signed renewal from the facility or entity, submit the renewal (and attached existing agreement) for signature following the "Submission" instructions above.
If you are submitting a request to amend an existing fully executed agreement that needs to be edited in some way, complete the TWU SFA Amendment Template located in the list of files to the right of this text on your screen. Fill in the highlighted information, save the document as a pdf, and attach it to the front of the existing agreement in Adobe and save the combined file as a new document. Send the amendment and existing agreement document to the facility or entity for their signature. Once you have received a signed amendment from the facility or entity, submit the amendment (and attached existing agreement) for signature following the "Submission" instructions above.
Attestation Forms
Sometimes, a facility requests that TWU sign an attestation form, which indicates TWU's assurance that an appropriate background check has been performed on a clinical student before the facility will allow the student to begin clinical work at the facility. Often, the facilities that request signed attestation forms from TWU provide those forms for an appropriate authority in your department to sign. Attestation forms provided by a facility should always be attached to and submitted with a request for affiliation agreement review. Sometimes a facility will accept or prefers to use TWU's attestation forms. TWU's Standard Attestation Form (SAF) can be found in the list of files to the right of this text on your screen. You may use this Standard Attestation Form without seeking approval/signature from the OGC.
Evidence of Coverage/Certificate of Liability Insurance
The generic TWU evidence of coverage or certificate of liability insurance (COI) can be found in the list of files to the right of this text on your screen. If the facility requests they be listed as a certificate holder, please send the request to Risk Management at risk@twu.edu.
Support
Contact the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at 940-898-3306.
Tutorials
For more extensive help with Academic Agreements, please see the tutorials under "Attachments" on the right hand side of the screen toward the top.
Who Can Use It
Faculty
Staff