To start the agreement proposal process to collaborate with an international partner, notify and submit the necessary documentation to the Office of International Programs and Partnerships (IPP). Please copy Assistant Director, Maria Melendrez (maria.melendrez@lmu.edu) or Vice Provost, Roberta Espinoza (roberta.espinoza@lmu.edu) on all relevant correspondences with the partner institution once you have established you want to move forward with a formal written agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Before considering a new international partner, reflect on the following questions:
- How does the partnership align with our institution’s mission, internationalization plan, and long-term global engagement goals?
- What is the scope of the partnership and does it fill any gaps in our institution’s existing programs?
- Does the proposed partner institution have the necessary faculty and staff capacity to launch and sustain the partnership?
- What is the potential for expanding the proposed partnership to engage multiple institutional units/offices?
- What are the plans for periodically assessing the partnership?
-
Discuss the partnership with your Department Chair and/or Dean to confirm that there is departmental and school/college support for your newly proposed collaboration.
Contact the Office of International Programs and Partnerships to discuss the new international partnership you are interested in pursuing and be prepared with responses to the questions listed above before signing an agreement/MOU with a new partner.
-
Email your formal proposal to International Programs and Partnerships, including any information that will be helpful to the reviewer such as draft MOUs or documents provided to you by the proposed international partner. We strongly encourage the use of LMU MOU templates (available upon request) to decrease the amount of time required to finalize the agreement.
Our team will respond to your original submission within 10 business days. Incomplete proposals will be returned to the LMU sponsor/initiator for completion. MOUs that require input from various campus stakeholders as part of the approval process will take additional time. In these cases, our office will get in touch with you to provide an estimated timeline with instructions on next steps. Once an MOU has been drafted by the Office of International Programs and Partnerships, it will then be reviewed by University Counsel.
-
A team member from our office will return a draft of the MOU to the LMU sponsor/initiator to be shared and reviewed with their international partner. At this stage in the process, there may be some back and forth to negotiate the relevant terms of the agreement that may take additional time to finalize the MOU. Any changes to the draft MOU should be clearly marked by all parties and must be approved by LMU's Senior International Officer on behalf of the Provost before signing.
It is strongly encouraged that English be the preferred language for all international MOUs. The initiator of the agreement is responsible for procuring a translation, if needed, and the costs associated with it.
-
Following approval of the draft MOU, the Office of International Programs and Partnerships will route it for the appropriate LMU electronic signatures (unless an alternative preference is indicated) and will forward it to the sponsor/initiator to obtain signatures from their international partner. The LMU sponsor/initiator is responsible for ensuring the Office of International Programs and Partnerships has either the original or a copy of the signed MOU.
Once the MOU has been fully signed by all parties, it will be considered complete, active, and will be entered into LMU’s Global Engagement Directory. LMU and the partner institution will each keep a fully executed copy of the MOU to be assessed on an annual basis (or as specified in the agreement).