Information for Faculty, Staff, and Students about Practice Site Agreements
To set up the formal relationships needed for a student in an academic program of the School of Public Health and Information Sciences to do work with and at an organization outside of the School for academic credit (e.g., MPH practicum), two separate but connected relationships must be established. First, the organization and the School must agree to the conditions under which the organization will serve as a practice site for the School’s students. Second, the student must agree to these conditions.
The steps involved in setting up the necessary relationships are as follows.
- The organization and School agree to the conditions under which students from the School may work with and at the organization.
- Typically this is a blanket agreement that deals with having students who may or may not have been identified to utilize the organization as a practice site now and in the future. There are two types of the blanket agreement:
- Affiliation agreement, which is a legal contract between the University of Louisville on behalf of the School and a practice-site organization that is not part of the University.
- Memorandum of understanding (MOU), which is a formal but not legal agreement between the School and a practice-site organization that is part of the University. (An organization, in this case the University, may not enter into a legal contract with itself.)
- An attachment to this blanket agreement is a sample of the agreement that a student is required to sign before he or she may work with and at the organization. Such a signed student agreement is not part of the site agreement.
- Signed copies of the blanket agreement are distributed to the practice site, the Dean’s Office, the MPH Program, and the University’s Privacy Office. (The latter is not done for an MOU since privacy conditions are shared within the University.)
- The student and the School agree to the conditions under which the student will work with and at the organization.
- This is a legal agreement between the student and the School.
- The student agreement is separate from but required by the blanket agreement between the practice site and the School.
- Signed copies of the student agreement are distributed to the practice site, the Dean’s Office, the MPH Program, and the student.
Q: Why are there two agreements, one with the practice site and one with the student?
A:A practice site agreement is between a practice site and the School that establishes the practice site as a practice site under specific terms and conditions. A student agreement is between a student and the School in which the student agrees to the terms and conditions set forth in the practice site agreement. This separation allows the practice site agreement to be in effect on a renewable basis without having to sign one each time a student utilizes the practice site. In other words, there is one practice site agreement and any number of student agreements to work at the practice site.
Q: How many student agreements can be under a particular practice site agreement?
A:Unless otherwise limited in the practice site agreement, any number of students can sign an agreement to work with and at the practice site. In addition, unless otherwise limited in the practice site agreement, there is no end date after which students may not sign up to work with and at the practice site.
Q: When can the student start to work with a practice site?
A:Technically the student should not work at the practice site until a student agreement is signed, which can only happen if there is a practice site agreement in place. In reality, however, the student and the practice site can discuss the potential project, any learning contract, and other topics prior to the student doing the actual work. The student should not access the practice site’s information, conduct surveys, analyze data, or do similar work without a student agreement in place.
Q: Why is a sample student agreement included in the practice site agreement?
A:One of the responsibilities of the School under the practice site agreement is to have a student agreement signed before the student works with or at the practice site. In order for the practice site to understand what form such a student agreement will take, a sample is included in the practice site agreement together with a condition that an actual student agreement will be substantially similar to the sample attached to the practice site agreement.
Q: How long is a practice site agreement in effect?
A:Typically a practice site agreement automatically renews every July 1st until the agreement is terminated by either party. As a result, most practice site agreement have not specified end date.
Q: How long is a student agreement in effect?
A:A student agreement typically terminates the earlier of the completion of the student’s work at the practice site or the next June 1st following the effective date of the student agreement.
Q: How are a student agreement and a practice site agreement related?
A:There are three levels of relationship between a student agreement and a practice site agreement. At the first level, described above, a student agreement is a signed document that is substantially the same as the sample student agreement included in the practice site agreement. At the second level, the practice site agreement is included by reference in a student agreement in order to accurately describe the terms and conditions to which the student is agreeing. At the third level, the lettered identification of the student agreement’s paragraphs is integrated with the lettered identification of the practice site agreement’s paragraphs, allowing convenience is referencing the latter in the former.
Q: How can I find out which organizations have already agreed to be a practice site?
A:An up-to-date list of affiliated practice sites is maintained at the following web address:
Q: How do I go about getting a practice site signed up that isn’t on the list of affiliated practice sites?
A:The following is an abbreviated version of the procedures in “Procedures for Executing Agreements Related to MPH Practicum,” available at:
- Give the site two documents: “Information for the Prospective Practice Site” and either “Practice Site Affiliation Agreement Template” if the site is outside the University or “University Practice Site Memorandum of Understanding Template” if the site in inside the University. Both documents are available at the immediately above web address.
- Tell the site to work with Pete Walton.
Q: How do I go about getting a student agreement signed?
A:The following is an abbreviated version of the procedures in “Procedures for Executing Agreements Related to MPH Practicum,” available at:
- Navigate to latter web page.
- Choose either “Student Agreement for Practice Site outside of University of Louisville”or “Student Agreement for Practice Site withinUniversity of Louisville,” depending on the practice site.
- Fill out the form.
- Print four copies of the filled-out form.
- Sign each copy.
- Give all four copies to LaTonia Peters.
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