AW-23 — Contracts, MoUs and Legal Review Administration

An agreement IoL cannot find is an agreement IoL does not have. Four OBEF KPIs, every placement and every research collaboration rest on producing a signed, numbered, in-date instrument on demand.

1. Purpose

To ensure that every agreement IoL enters, relies on or is bound by is identified before it is agreed in principle, routed to MBRU Legal, signed only by a person with authority to sign it, recorded in one register with its number, dates, obligations and signatory, tracked through its life, varied or terminated only through the same route, and stored so that it can be produced within the service standard. Legal safety comes first; the evidence value follows from it.

2. Scope

Scope statement. This procedure manages an agreement from the first proposal of a relationship that would bind IoL or MBRU, through classification, legal review, approval, execution and registration, to obligation tracking, renewal, variation, termination and archiving.

Applies to. MoUs; partnership and collaboration agreements; placement-site agreements; research collaboration agreements; dual or joint degree and mobility agreements; sponsorship in either direction; service and consultancy contracts; NDAs; data-sharing and data-processing agreements; licences; letters of intent and any document a counterparty could rely on as a commitment.

Does not apply to. Purchase orders on MBRU standard terms (AW-10); adjunct and clinical-educator appointment letters (AW-08); employment contracts (MBRU HR); the OBEF classification and contribution valuation of a partnership (WF-24); the academic approval of a placement site (WF-13); institutional contract policy and the conduct of legal negotiation (MBRU Legal).

Applicable requirements. ISO 9001:2015 clauses 7.5 and 8.4; ISO 21001:2018 clause 8.4; MBRU contracts and delegation policies and Dubai Health governance [IoL to confirm]; CAA Standards for collaborative provision and mobility [IoL to confirm edition]; UAE data protection law; OBEF guide v11.5 Appendix B evidence requirements for KPIs 4.3, 5.3 and 5.4.

3. Trigger, boundary and endpoint

The boundary with WF-24 is the register. WF-24 keeps the partnership register with the OBEF classification and contribution values; AW-23 keeps the contracts register with the instrument. They share the agreement number and reconcile annually.

4. SIPOC

5. Accountability

Process owner. IoL Contracts Administrator or equivalent [IoL to confirm], with authority to refuse to register an agreement that has not passed review and signature control.

Budget or income treatment is confirmed by the Budget Holder under AW-02.

Signature authority [IoL to confirm against AW-05 and the MBRU delegation]

Escalation.

6. Procedure

1. Intake. The Requesting Owner notifies the Administrator at first contact, before terms are discussed, using the intake form: purpose, counterparty, type, term, value or in-kind element, personal data, IP, and the dependent IoL workflow. The Administrator opens a register row with a provisional number and checks for an existing agreement with the counterparty. [CONTROL] Nothing that could be read as a commitment is sent before the row exists. Decision point. If a live agreement covers the relationship, the request becomes a variation (step 11).

2. Classify. Type from the section 2 list, value band, financial commitment or income, personal data, IP, placement, research, mobility or joint award, and whether an MBRU template exists. This sets the routing and the signatory.

3. Route for review. [CONTROL] Every instrument goes to MBRU Legal except an unamended MBRU template listed as pre-cleared [IoL to confirm which]. In parallel: data-sharing terms to AW-16; financial commitment to AW-02 and income to AW-12; IP to WF-20; research collaborations to the WF-17 project record; placement sites to WF-13; mobility and joint-degree agreements to WF-01 and WF-24 for the CAA pre-approval check; any partnership to WF-24 for classification. Decision point. A mobility or joint-degree agreement does not proceed until WF-24 confirms the CAA position: KPI 5.3 scores zero for an exchange under an unapproved agreement, and the learner exposure is worse.

4. Negotiate. MBRU Legal negotiates legal terms; the Requesting Owner negotiates academic, service or commercial content within the Budget Holder's mandate. Drafts pass through the Administrator, who keeps the version history. [CONTROL] No side letter, email undertaking or verbal assurance forms part of an agreement.

5. Approve to sign. The Administrator assembles the signature pack: final draft, Legal clearance, AW-16 clearance and CAA position where applicable, budget or income confirmation, and the register row. The Authorised Signatory approves. [CONTROL] The negotiator does not sign; the Requesting Owner does not sign their own agreement; anyone with an interest in the counterparty declares it under MBRU conflict-of-interest policy and takes no part. Value is assessed over the full term.

6. Execute and number. Both parties sign; the Administrator confirms the signed versions are identical, assigns the definitive number in the form [IoL to confirm] and files the instrument, with originals held as MBRU policy provides. [CONTROL] A number is assigned only to a fully executed instrument.

7. Complete the register row. Counterparty (normalised to the AW-22 organisation list), type, value, start and end dates, renewal terms and notice period, signatories, storage location, Requesting Owner and number. Every obligation on either side goes into the obligations schedule with an owner, a due date and a status. [CONTROL] A row without an end date or an obligations schedule is flagged at the monthly check.

8. Notify dependent workflows. Within 5 working days of execution: number, type, dates and validity window to WF-24 for the partnership register; to WF-17 for Agreement/MOU Number on the research project record; to WF-13 for the approved-site list; to WF-01 where a mobility or joint-degree component depends on it; to AW-11 or AW-12, AW-16 and AW-22 for their terms. [CONTROL] The notification is logged per recipient; an agreement nobody downstream knows about evidences nothing.

9. Track obligations. The Requesting Owner reviews the schedule each quarter and reports met, due, overdue or in breach. Payments are made only through AW-11 against the schedule; income through AW-12. Decision point. Suspected breach goes to MBRU Legal via the Administrator within 5 working days.

10. Run renewal alerts. Alerts at 180, 90 and 30 days before expiry or notice deadline. The Requesting Owner records renew, renegotiate, expire or terminate by 60 days before expiry, and WF-24, WF-13 and WF-17 are told. [CONTROL] No agreement on which a placement, project or mobility option depends expires without the dependent workflow owner's written acceptance.

11. Vary. Any change to term, scope, value, parties or data handling repeats steps 3 to 8 as a numbered variation against the parent. [CONTROL] Variation by email or conduct is not recognised; the Administrator refuses to record it and refers it to MBRU Legal.

12. Terminate or expire. The Administrator records date, reason, surviving obligations (confidentiality, data return, IP, publication rights) and the AW-16 confirmation that personal data has been returned or destroyed. Dependent workflows are told.

13. Archive. Instrument, variations, signature pack, schedule and termination record go to AW-04 with the row marked closed, never deleted.

14. Reconcile annually. The Administrator and the Partnerships Office compare the two registers: every partnership has a live or explicitly expired instrument, every partnership instrument is classified, and the numbers match. Both sign. [CONTROL] The reconciliation is dated before the WF-26 evidence freeze, so the numbers cited in Institute - Research Projects.xlsx and Institute Partnerships.xlsx are the numbers here.

7. Information handled and interfaces

8. Controls

Stated as assertions an auditor can test.

9. Exceptions and escalation

This procedure must never: allow a commitment before a register row exists; assign a definitive number to an unexecuted draft; supply WF-17 or WF-24 with a number that has no executed instrument behind it; let a mobility or joint-degree agreement carry a registered learner without the CAA position recorded; accept an informal variation; let anyone but the Administrator edit the register; or delete a row.

10. Service standards

11. Records and retention

Retention must cover the OBEF evidence window for any KPI the agreement evidences; the Ministry may demand the instrument behind an Agreement/MOU Number in a later cycle.

12. Risks and controls

13. Performance measures

14. Change control