Study Abroad university partnership proposal

Study abroad proposal

University of Algarve

UNIVERSITY IN NUMBERS

Nº Academic Units 7

Nº Students 9708

Nº 1st Cycle Graduates 1242

Nº 2nd Cycle Graduates 159

Nº Doctoral Graduates 32

Nº Teachers /Researchers 820

Nº Researchers 9

Nº Teachers with PhD 387

Nº Exchange Programs 353

Nº Research Units 7

Nº Campus 4

Nº Libraries 4

Nº Non-Teaching Staff 452

Proposal Outline

The following is a general outline of a generic proposal that might be provided from a local nonprofit organization to a local funding source. In this case both organizations share a common knowledge of the local community and the areas of the metropolitan area that have different levels of schooling, income, crime, industrial activity, public transportation and civic organization. The general outline should not be followed slavishly. It should be viewed as a general checklist. Not all proposals will need all of the sections listed and some may require sections not listed in the outline.

Before you begin your outline

Before you begin your outline describe in one paragraph the existing relationship between the nonprofit organization for which you will be writing a proposal and the proposed funding organization for which the proposal is intended. If you are still considering more than one funding organization provide a list of all still under consideration. Is there an existing personal relationship between the leaders of the nonprofit organization and the leaders of the proposed funding organization? Has the funding organization previously provided any funding for the nonprofit? If so, what type of project was funded and for how much? It could also be that there has never been any known contact between nonprofit and the proposed funding organization. If so, state that.

General Outline

Title page

See the Handout titled, “Title Page” for a generic title page. Every title page should provide, at a minimum, the information listed on the example. You may also want to use the information provided on p. 202 of the textbook. The proposal you will be writing will not merit an abstract. That should be reserved for larger and more complex proposals. In some cases additional information might be provide because of requirements of the funding source or to provide some significant information for the recipient of the proposal.

Introduction

Provide and introduction to the organization. This section will vary widely in length depending on how well know the nonprofit is to the funding organization. For a nonprofit that has been well known to the funding source a single short paragraph should be adequate. For a nonprofit completely unknown to the funding source it could require several paragraphs to explain the breath of work the nonprofit does. At this time you should have the information available to you to write this section in its entirety. Please provide a complete draft of this section of the proposal.

Need Statement or project description

You have already written a need statement. Rarely will you be able to just copy and paste the need statement you have written into your proposal. The section will normally require some transition sentence(s) or paragraph to fit into the full document and you probably need to carefully edit the entire section to make sure it fits into the style of the rest of the proposal. Watch out for plural phrases that should now be changed to singular and Vis versa.

You may also need to amplify your need statement to show how your specific project will fit into the overall work of the organization. For anything you don’t have written provide a detailed outline of what you plan to include.

Goal(s), objective(s) and tasks

Tell the reader what you expect this project to accomplish and how the organization intends to accomplish its goal(s). These are only the goals, objectives and tasks of the project for which you are seeking funding, not the broader goals of the organization.

Review the textbook to be sure you know the difference between goals, objectives and tasks. (pp 216-224).

Budget and Finances

What is your proposed project going to cost? How much of that cost are you asking the funding organization to fund? Provide as much of a detailed cost breakdown as you can at this point. How much of this cost is the nonprofit going to contribute out of its existing revenue sources and how much is being asked from the funding source? At a minimum you should separate out the following.

Personnel

Include descriptive titles for all personnel or jobs listed.

Salary cost for full time employees should include an additional 32 percent of direct pay for fringe benefits

Salary costs for part time employees should include an additional 20 percent for fringe benefits.

Equipment and supplies (purchased)

Equipment (rented)

Rental of building space

Other (list separately any significant costs)

If this is a long term project (a year or longer in length) explain how the budget will be spent per quarter.

You may, or may not want to include the nonprofit’s entire annual budget in an appendix.

Schedule

If the project will operate for several months or years, provide a schedule which includes specific milestones. Describe the operations that will take place during different phases of the schedule. At a minimum be sure to include an ending date for the money which you are asking the funding organization to provide.

Evaluation and sustainability

How does the nonprofit intend to measure the success of the program being proposed? How will you know if the project was a success? Are there any objectively quantifiable results that can be measured to determine the success of the project?

If the project is intended to be ongoing after the period of funding you are requesting how will that be arranged? How will the project be funded after the funding period you are requesting?

Appendices

Will you be including any appendices? If so, provide descriptive titles of the proposed appendices.

Not all proposals will require all sections outlined above. Some proposals are only for purchasing needed equipment. These proposals are relatively simple. If the money is made available, the equipment will be purchased, put to work and the project will be complete. Other proposals are more complex and involve hiring specialized personnel either full time or part time and will require a more complex proposal

I do not expect a completely fill out proposal at the end of the week, but I do expect enough of the required information so I can see what you are going to be proposing and do you have some information on all the bases that do need to be covered.

This assignment will be due March 4 and will be graded.

Proposal Checklist & Schedule

You have been assigned the job of writing the proposal that responds to the Request for Proposal (RFP) titled, “Competition #6: Promoting Study Abroad Partnerships for Innovation and Collaboration”. President Flores, the Provost, and other members of the administration want to have this grant in order to build up the international opportunities for UHD students. Winning this grant would be a big step in that direction.

Once the decision has been made to submit a proposal for an RFP, the first activity is to study the proposal. From this study you will create a list of all the items you must cover in the proposal and all of the other information that must be submitted with the proposal. The list will also include all of the other requirements and hoops you must jump through to make your proposal compliant with the requirements of the RFP. Remember, complying with every minor requirement is necessary to have your proposal even read by the evaluation panel.

Since you may write the proposal as separate sections and some sections may be written by different people you also will place a deadline on when each section is due. In this case you will be responsible for all of the sections of the proposal, but you need to have a schedule for everything as an aid to keep you on track.

I suggest you do the following steps.

First, make a list of all the sections, including any annexes, which you will be submitting. Include any subheadings within each of the sections. Make notes as to what must be included in each section as well as in any subheadings.

Second, set a due date when you will have a completed draft written for each section, including all subheadings. I expect some of the deadlines will be before April 1. You do need to get started on this assignment this week.

Third, make a list of all other requirements for the submitted proposal. This list will include any requirement in the RFP, not a part of the first step, above. This list will include such requirements as font size, paper size, margins, etc.

You will need to develop a format for the list(s) that are convenient and clear for both you and your target audience to easily understand. Any confusion or lack of clarity will work against you on the grading.

Only the list(s) need to be submitted this week. If you have completed some of the drafts please do not submit them at this week. Doing so will just confuse me.

This assignment will be due April 1and will be graded.

Picking a Partner University

The Study Abroad proposal which you are now working on provides for many different ways study abroad programs can be structured. UHD can work toward increasing the number of students that participate in UHD classes that spend a short time abroad as a unified class headed by a member of the UHD faculty. A foreign university could do the same and use UHD as a base including having their classes held in UHD classrooms with UHD faculty providing some individual lectures. In some programs the length of the time abroad is lengthened to be an entire semester abroad with a set schedule of classes including some taught by the faculty of the partner university. In the above examples the classes are taught in English, with the possible exception of language classes.

Another way a study abroad program can work is for individual students from UHD to go to the foreign university and enroll as a student in the foreign university for a semester and take the regular classes taught at that university. The classes to be taken are usually preapproved by the UHD department where the UHD student is majoring to assure that the credits earned abroad will be accepted by the program here. In this case the classes taken would be taught in the language of the university where the classes are taught. Obviously, the student should be reasonably proficient in the language of the host university before applying for such a program.

All of the above options can be worked in both directions. UHD students can study abroad and foreign students can come to study at UHD. These arrangements are much easier to organize if UHD has a standing bilateral agreement with a foreign university. Such an agreement provides for transfer of the credits issued by one university to be applied to a degree in the other university.

Just to clarify, for purposes of this assignment and for writing this proposal we will not include Canada as a potential host country. I gather from reading the RFP that the Department of State’s intent is to look south, not north for study abroad programs.

For this week’s assignment you are to identify one university in the Western Hemisphere with which it would be advantageous for UHD to negotiate a bilateral agreement for exchange of students. The agreement could include any or all of the above described arrangements and other variations.

To be of benefit both universities the partnering university should include programs in several areas where UHD has programs. It does not necessarily need to have programs in all the same areas as UHD. There should, however, be sufficient overlap between the two universities to include a number of different programs in each university.

When you locate a university check to make sure that it qualifies as a HEI according to the criteria of the RFP. It should be a degree granting institution that awards degrees equivalent to the Bachelor degree in the United States. No trade schools or the equivalent of a junior college in the U.S.

When you locate a university you feel would be a good match with UHD provide the following information.

Complete official name of the university, preferably in the official language of the country. You may provide a translation also if you wish.

Location: country and city

List the areas in which the university offers courses of study, the equivalent of majors in the U.S.

Number of students enrolled.

Explain how this institution meets the requirements of a HEI as defined in the RFP.

Explain, as completely as possible, why this university would make a good study abroad partner with UHD. Your explanation should include why a partnership would be beneficial to UHD as well as why it would be beneficial to the foreign university you have selected.

FYI, in most Spanish speaking countries the term “colegio” does not refer to a college. When referring to an educational institution it is usually referring to a high school.

Also, when looking up universities in other countries the web site is probably available primarily in the local language: Spanish, Portuguese or French. There is usually a link to Google translator if you wish to read the web site in English. Do not copy and paste material directly from the Google translation. Google provides sufficiently accurate translations so the message being sent can be understood. It does not provide sufficiently accurate translations to earn a passing grade for this assignment. Rewrite the translation in your own words and provide a citation for your source.

This assignment will be due April 15 and will be graded as a short assignment.