Main Job Objective(s)
Contracts
The Manager: Contracts is responsible for providing assistance to all stakeholders across the institution as regards negotiating, drafting, reviewing and concluding agreements, including grant agreements and contracts. This shall not be limited to one area of specialisation. This shall include, but is not limited to, negotiating, drafting, administering and ‘vetting’/reviewing contractual agreements and grant agreements. It shall include matters such as research collaboration, confidentiality, material transfer agreements, grant agreements, disclosure agreements and licensing agreements. This position is pivotal to the maintaining of funding opportunities by building relationships with the legal divisions of funders. The incumbent shall support academic staff with contract management. The incumbent will be required to give regular updates on contracts and agreements to the Director: Office of the Vice-Chancellor. The incumbent shall also be responsible for producing due diligence reports and for keeping the data base of contracts up to date. The incumbent will provide legal support and assistance to legal colleagues with differing legal portfolios in the institution, on an ongoing basis. The incumbent is a member of the team that forms part of the Legal and Associated Services Unit and shall work collaboratively with others in the team to discharge the mandate of the Unit.
Plagiarism
As regards the issue of plagiarism the incumbent reports to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and Student Affairs with a dotted line to the Director: Office of the Vice-Chancellor. The incumbent will work with Heads of Departments, academics and students to ensure that departments and students have a common understanding of what plagiarism entails, and all departments, institutes, centres and units offering the institution’s qualifications operate on the basis of a similar understanding of plagiarism when dealing with identified plagiarism cases.
The incumbent will be responsible for the provision of support and training to develop staff and students on detection and avoidance of plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, and further encourage faculties, departments, institutes, centres and units offering the institution’s qualifications to commit themselves to educating all students thoroughly about the nature of plagiarism, as well as the conventions that apply to researching and presenting academic material in their respective disciplines. In addition, the incumbent must provide various procedures for dealing with students who commit plagiarism in all forms of assessments at the various academic or National Qualifications Framework (NQF) levels of study (certificates, diplomas, degrees, including short courses), ensure that a proper database of plagiarism cases is kept by departments and reports are developed and submitted to the Senate Standing Committee on Plagiarism, as well as Senate. Where possible, in collaboration with the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) Ed Tech staff explore various plagiarism detection mechanisms to assist students and academics in both detecting and preventing incidences of plagiarism. The incumbent will provide legal support and assistance to legal colleagues with differing legal portfolios in the institution, on an ongoing basis. The incumbent is a member of the team that forms part of the Legal and Associated Services Unit and shall work collaboratively with others in the team to discharge the mandate of the Unit.
Key Performance Areas
Strategic Responsibilities
- Recommend a contracts strategy, processes, protocols, systems, technology and implement that strategy, for the Research Office
- Implement programmes, processes, policies and recommendations to translate strategy into operational excellence
- Network with other universities nationally and internationally to assess trends and developments in the management of contracts and IP clauses within contracts and identify and originate innovative new practices
- Conduct risk analyses and report on strategies to make best use of opportunities while simultaneously reducing risk
Financial costing
- In collaboration with the Finance Division, review and advise on contract budgets so that costs (direct and indirect) can be recovered in line with university policy and faculty requirements
- Management of royalty distribution and licensing income for institutional copyrighted works
- Produce budget forecasts and reporting based on historical costs and anticipated developments
- Ensure that the necessary assessment of full-cost or part-cost models in contracts in relation to intellectual property ownership in collaboration with the Finance Division
Legal responsibilities
- Provide verbal and written high-level legal opinion on all contracts to staff at the institution
- Give input on the drafting of university policies on contract management, as well as any ethical, reputational or cost-recovery issues that may require attention
- Keep abreast of changes in the law or government requirements that affect contracts and intellectual property management in general, or the academic world in particular
- Working with the Finance Division keep the institution up to date on compliance requirements and practises around costing models for state funded research
Contracts and Process Management and Administration
Drawing up contracts of both research and non-research contract and grant agreements
- Negotiate, draft, review and conclude both research and non–research agreements, contracts and grant agreements
- Provide advice and interpretation on all contracts, agreements and grant agreements
- Produce due diligence reports with the required documentation
- Ensure the quick turn-around time on all contracts. This is vital to this role
- Provide legal support and assistance to legal colleagues with differing legal portfolios within the University, when required to do so
- Interact with funders and partner organisations to develop and modify contracts in accordance with institutional policies, national policies, and laws
- Negotiate, draft and finalise complex research-related agreements to a broad spectrum of audiences. In the process, identify and manage potential contractual issues such as IP ownership, conflict of interest, confidentiality clauses, publication rights and payment terms. Costing advice is required in relation to the university administrative levy, and the Vat status of agreements, as well as SARS implications. Anticipate and defuse potential obstacles by drafting the contract accordingly
Review incoming contract and grant agreements, both research and non-research
- Critically review incoming contracts from external funders and identify and manage contractual issues such as IP ownership, conflict of interest, confidentiality clauses, publication rights and payment terms
- In collaboration with the Finance Division, costing advice is required in relation to the institution’s administrative levy, and the VAT status of agreements. Confirming the cost proposed based on IP ownership clauses
- Anticipate and defuse potential obstacles, risks, errors and omissions by drafting the contract accordingly
- Log the work-flow process of incoming contracts and provide management reports as required
Safeguarding intellectual property
- Apply specialist knowledge and competence in intellectual property law
- Stay abreast of the IPR Act, and changes in legislation concerning IP
Reporting
- Compilation of regular reports (quarterly, annual, or as required) on contracts in progress, and any problems or exceptions arising, successes, and monetary gains secured
Post Contract and/or Award Completion
- Responsible for the gathering and submission of Due Diligence documents to funders post Contract and/or Award completion
Capacity development
- Build capacity amongst administrators and academic staff across all faculties, and post-graduate students. Specifically, create increased levels of understanding and application of knowledge so that staff can spot basic errors, risks and opportunities concerning key aspects of contracts
- Provide standard templates (such as frequently used contracts, MOUs, MOAs, MTAs, NDAs and licensing agreements or frequently used contracts) so that staff can prepare routine contractual transactions for review by the Manager: Contracts
- Ensure that financial and administrative staff are trained in IP issues, as far as it pertains to IP clauses in contracts
- Stay abreast of research and legal developments
Process Management Responsibilities
- Use INTEUM for the recording and processing of all agreements and contracts (including but not limited to confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, material transfer agreements, research contracts, collaboration agreements, memorandums of agreement/understanding, and license agreements etc.) and ensure it is continually updated and maintained
- Must ensure that all details are recorded and that agreement obligations are met. All agreements to be uploaded so that comparisons against the agreement record can be made, important clauses can be highlighted, and records can be created of budgets, milestones and reports
- Develop and maintain the INTEUM database of contractual documents and historical information
- Administrative support for the INTEUM database work will be provided by the administrative capacity in the Technology Transfer Section
- Develop and implement systems, policies and procedures to screen, safeguard, streamline and support contacts. Database development, management and data mining
- Work with the Technology Transfer Section to ensure that incubation hub inventions across the faculties are brought to fruition through sound contractual protection
- Legal sign-off role, vetting the integrity of documents prior to approval by senior members of staff
- Referral of issues to senior staff or appropriate authorities as appropriate and follow up to keep to good turnaround times
Support and Assistance to Team Member of the Unit
- Work collaboratively with others in the Legal and Associated Services Unit, to discharge the mandate of the Unit
- Providing legal support and assistance to legal colleagues with differing legal portfolios in the institution, on an ongoing basis
Guidance and Support
- Provide guidance to academic departments and to the Senate Standing Committee on Plagiarism in dealing with all cases involving plagiarism or other academic dishonesty
- Provide guidance to students convicted of plagiarism who wish to appeal against their convictions
- Receive findings and decisions of the Departmental Plagiarism Committee hearing the appeal from the department secretary or administrator or chair of the Departmental Plagiarism Committee
- Advise departments on the range of penalty options in order as far as possible to ensure equality and fairness of penalties imposed across different departments
- Provide administrative assistance to academic departments and to the Senate Standing Committee on Plagiarism in dealing with all cases involving plagiarism or other academic dishonesty
Case Management
- Receive reports from HoDs on cases identified by the Departmental Plagiarism Committees as serious enough to constitute a category C case or to be dealt with under the Student Disciplinary Code
- Check that the documents submitted for Category C cases by the department are correct and request further documents or clarifications from the Head of Department where necessary
- Submit documents for Category C cases to the Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Plagiarism
- Check whether students have been convicted of plagiarism in any other department upon receiving evidence of plagiarism from a department
- Provide guidance on the preparation of evidence and the formulation of the charge against the student
- Refer cases of cheating and others deemed as serious infringements of academic integrity to the University Prosecutor to be dealt with under the Student Disciplinary Code
- Work collaboratively with the University Prosecutor in prosecuting Plagiarism cases
Training Students and Staff
- Identify training needs among staff and students and provide necessary support
- Develop a training programme for detection of plagiarism for staff
- Develop a training programme for avoidance of plagiarism for students
- Provide regular training to academic departments and to students on the avoidance and detection of plagiarism, as well as academic integrity and good ethical conduct in examinations
- Work closely with CHERTL during the first-year orientation Week
- Provide training during ongoing orientation of first year students
- Work closely with HoDs and academics to organise training and support for undergraduate students
Reporting, Monitoring and Keeping Records
- Compile and submit reports to the institution’s Senate Standing Committee on Plagiarism
- Prepare, compile and submit annual plagiarism report to Senate at the beginning of each year after completion of November/December examinations and supplementary exams
- Ensure that departments report all cases of plagiarism and record them on Protea
- Maintain a central database of all plagiarism cases
- Monitor and keep records of all cases of plagiarism (including category A plagiarism) in the institution
Quality Assurance and Risk Management
- Ensure compliance with the Plagiarism Policy
- Ensure proper implementation of the Plagiarism Policy
- Participate in the review of the Plagiarism Policy
- Ensure to the greatest possible extent without unduly interfering outcomes that processes and penalties for plagiarism are applied evenly and fairly by different academic departments across the institution
Administrative Support
- Organise Category C Tribunals in line with the plagiarism policy
- Attend Category C hearings and take minutes of the meetings
- Assist the members of the Tribunal tasked with writing the Tribunal’s judgment (written reasons) in formulating the document
- Liaise with various stakeholders required to attend the Tribunal
- Organise Plagiarism Committee meetings as required
- Compile and distribute documents to committee members in preparation for tribunals
- Compile and distribute documents for review panels in preparation for reviews of cases
Job Requirements
Education & Experience
- LLB plus approximately 3years’ relevant experience where such experience includes:
- Ability to negotiate, draft, review and conclude agreements and contracts
- Contracts and IP knowledge within a research and technology transfer environment
- Data-base creation, management and data mining
- Financial management (to include budgets, tracking and costing experience)
- Project-management experience
- Previous experience working within a legal services environment
- Previous experience and knowledge of contracts and IP issues in the South African Higher Education Research environment will be an advantage
- Experience will plagiarism-related matters will be an advantage
