Setting up and management of partnerships

Setting up partnerships

Global Partnerships works with Schools to support the development of scalable international and UK collaborations that will contribute to the financial sustainability of the University and meet mobility targets.

We will support:

• Schools in the identification of opportunities and prioritisation of projects
• development of business plans, financial modelling, and due diligence
• contract negotiation

We also work in supporting the University in the delivery of larger projects of strategic importance that will likely cross over a number of Schools.

Partnerships are developed in line with the Collaborative Partnership Code of Practice which encapsulates guidance related to developing, delivering and monitoring teaching collaborations.

Management of partnerships

Each collaboration is governed by an agreement that needs to be monitored to ensure that it is operating effectively.

Schools are responsible for the management of their collaborations, including the monitoring and review of operations, with the University maintaining strategic oversight of the process.

Our team can work with the School in managing the partnership to enable the School and the University to identify areas of concern and opportunity, and to take action accordingly.

Continuous monitoring and review are achieved through:

1. Systematic and effective use of available data and evidence to inform improvement actions
2. Early identification of areas for improvement
3. Prompt implementation of improvement actions
4. Early identification, recording and dissemination of good practice
5. Tracking of issues and improvement actions so that all stakeholders are aware of the action taken

Action plans

It is useful to complete an action plan setting out steps for implementation and delivery at the start of a collaboration. This can be continually added to and updated throughout the year as actions are achieved, and as new issues for resolution or good practice are identified.

What should be monitored?

• Contract management: the University has a central record of agreements and dates when they should be renewed, however, it is expected that the Schools maintain more detailed paperwork so that if an issue does arise reference can quickly be made to relevant documents.
• Academic quality: the University is responsible for oversight of academic quality and international collaborations must comply with the institutional quality assurance framework.
• Business of the partnership: it is important that the resources allocated to the collaboration are identified, and that performance against financial targets be closely observed.
• Wider context: all academic collaborations operate within a wider political and financial context. These should be monitored (especially in countries going through political instability), where, for example, there may be risks to the security of students/staff, health and safety issues, or transport issues.

International collaborations performance criteria

All collaborations pursued by the University will be monitored and measured against a key set of performance criteria.  These will enable the School and University to review whether a partnership is ‘successful’ and ‘effective’.

The four areas of performance criteria for collaborations are:

• finance: profit and cost
• academic performance
• student experience
• partnership working