Your International Agreement College Representative can help you decide what type of agreement is needed. At this time, schedule to meet with your College Representative or email Traci Lacy (tlacy@tamu.edu), discuss specific interests for collaboration with the approved foreign partner, if you have not already done so. To simplify the international agreement process, our office has developed a series of templates and supplemental resources to assist in developing a specific agreement. In order to reduce processing and review time, please use approved templates whenever possible. To view the available agreement templates, including the Justification Statement, click on the previous Step 3 of this webpage.
Facilitated by Global Partnership Services:
A. Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): A Memorandum of Understanding is a general agreement that lists areas of possible joint activities, without creating financial obligations or committing resources. This type of agreement can also serve as a “letter of intent”, sometimes requested by foreign partners. While this template establishes a formal relationship between TAMU and the institution abroad, it does not authorize specific actions. The purpose of an MOU is to acknowledge a formal, ongoing, strategic, long-term relationship between institutions. An MOU does not express a binding commitment to any specific activity, but rather a serious intention to explore. MOU’s are not encouraged unless there is clear intent to implement an actual project of exchange and/or other academic activities in the near future, where the execution of the MOU will foster that action. The MOU establishes a framework for exploring collaboration, and it identifies institutional concerns such as consistency with accreditation principles, compliance with immigration and export control requirements, as well as intellectual property ownership. These agreements are not usually renewed and are expected to be replaced by specific agreements. However, the agreement initiator may request a renewal of an exploratory agreement providing rationale for a continued collaboration with the partner university.
B. Memorandum of Agreements (MOA): The Memorandum of Agreement is a specific agreement involving financial arrangements, institutional obligations, or specifies the terms of academic programs. MOAs are used to establish such elements as collaborative degree programs, reciprocal exchange programs, joint research centers, or research projects where funds or other resources are committed. There are several established types, some of which have templates; for all others, we can provide recently approved samples.
The agreement types described below do not cover all possible collaborations, however, they provide a good starting point. At the meeting with the college representative, the current template samples can be reviewed and a determination made as to which template to use. We can work with the ICC to develop a draft document that applies to the specific collaboration. In addition, we can draw language from other approved agreements that may fit programmatic needs and to expedite the review process.
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General Collaboration Agreement/MOA: Used as a way of formalizing cooperation without defining how, this type of agreement does not outline specific programming but shows clear intent of collaboration. This general MOA does not vary from the general MOA template and may be finalized quickly.
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Reciprocal Student Exchange Agreement (REEP): This agreement establishes the parties’ roles and responsibilities, program requirements and terms and conditions pertaining to the implementation of reciprocal student exchanges between TAMU and an institution abroad. REEP activities have financial, accreditation, and immigration implications and require a thorough evaluation. The implementation of a reciprocal student exchange requires a balance of the course credit count of incoming and outgoing students. Per SACSCOC policies, an exchange may not begin until a fully executed agreement exists and SACSCOC has been notified by the Office of the Provost. Before a REEP agreement may be approved, the program must meet following policies and procedures:
C. Amendment to the Memorandum of Agreement/Understanding for Extension: The Memorandum of Agreement/Understanding Extension may be utilized in emergency circumstances where an active agreement will expire prior to the execution of a full renewal, causing a gap in the program. The extension would allow the original agreement to remain in place while a full renewal is negotiated and finalized. This extension is not intended to replace a full renewal due to everchanging policies and regulations.
Facilitated by the Office of the Provost:
A. Dual Degree Program: The SACSCOC Policy Statement on Joint & Dual Academic Awards defines a dual educational program as “one whereby students study at two or more institutions and each institution awards a separate program completion credential bearing only its own name, seal and signature.” These arrangements require in-depth evaluation by the appropriate administrators in Curricular Services and the Provost’s Office. Before a dual educational international program agreement may be approved, the program must meet a variety of criteria.
B. Joint Degree Program: The SACSCOC Policy Statement on Joint & Dual Academic
Awards defines a joint educational program as “one whereby students study at two or more institutions and the institutions grant a single academic award bearing the names, seals, and signatures of each of the participating institutions.” Currently, Texas A&M University does not support the development of Joint Degree Programs.
Facilitated by the Division of Research:
A. Technical and Scientific Cooperation Agreement/Research Agreement: This type of agreement provides a framework for collaboration on academic research, addresses intellectual property ownership, and provides for compliance with applicable laws. If they are general enough to use an MOA, you may use the existing MOA template. However, this template NOT appropriate for relationships that involve any exchange of goods or services, sponsored research projects, activities associated with restricted technologies, or activities that are expected to lead to the development of commercial intellectual property, such as licenses and patents See the Office of Sponsored Research (https://vpr.tamu.edu/) for more information about these types of agreements.