Helping a university speed up student project contracting

92% of agreements closed within one month following implementation.

The Strategic Alliances Team within the university's Computer Science Department manages more than 700 student project contracts every year. These agreements support collaborations between students and external organisations, including leading financial, technology and healthcare institutions.

The team’s role is not just administrative. It is central to student experience, company relationships and future funding opportunities.

However, the process was becoming too slow and manual for the volume of work involved. Project terms were lengthy, which created negotiation points and delays. Sending, tracking and signing agreements required significant manual administration. That made it harder for the team to see what was progressing, what was stuck, and where follow-up was needed.

The team wanted to:

1. Accelerate contracting without lowering standards
2. Reduce unnecessary negotiation
3. Build more flexibility into resourcing
4. Improve visibility across a large volume of agreements
5. Understand what market-standard legal positions looked like for collaborations
6. Free internal time for student and company relationships

As the Strategic Alliances Director, put it:

“We didn't want to just add more man hours to the problems, we wanted someone who would provide thoughtful but realistic solutions with smart use of technology where it would really help.”

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We were asked to help the department take control of the contracting process for student projects and manage the contract negotiations on its behalf.

The standard terms were longer than they needed to be for the purpose they served. At 17 pages, they created more room for review, challenge and delay. The signature process was also too manual for the scale of the work. Even when agreements were moving, the team lacked the reporting and tracking infrastructure needed to manage the process confidently at volume.

There was also an important resourcing issue. Simply adding more people would not address the root issues, the team wanted smarter contracting operations: clearer terms, better workflows, appropriate use of technology and a partner who could help them keep improving.

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We began by simplifying the legal foundations of the process.

Stage 1

• We optimised standard terms, reducing them from 17 pages to three. This made the terms clearer, more proportionate and easier for counterparties to engage with without removing any protection.
• We then moved the signature process online using an industry-standard technology solution. This allowed the team to approve bulk sending of agreements and introduced preliminary tracking across the contracting process.

Stage 2

• We introduced Docassemble, a document automation platform. This created a more structured process for bulk sending agreements and established a centralised data point for the contracting workflow. It also improved reporting and tracking, giving the team a clearer view of progress and outstanding work.

Stage 3

• A managed team working alongside the in-house team to handle contracting through this process. Weekly progress reports, including useful metadata, are generated directly from the system.
• This created a practical operating model built around four elements:

1. Shorter and clearer standard terms
2. Online sending and signing
3. Automated document generation and tracking
4. Ongoing contract support and progress reporting
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The new process gave the university’s Strategic Alliances Team more space to focus on the relationships that matter most: students, companies and future collaborators.

It also helped capture and transfer knowledge, supporting longer-term internal upskilling rather than leaving expertise trapped in ad hoc contract handling.

The most visible improvement was speed. In a recent round of student and company contracting, Radiant closed 92% of agreements within one month.

Faster contracting reduces administration and helps the department maintain momentum with external organisations, reduce uncertainty for students, and build stronger relationships for future collaboration. Radiant now works in tandem with the department to handle contracting through the improved process.

The Strategic Alliances Director, described the change this way:

“The team’s ability to transform our workflow has been amazing. Radiant are real partners to us and we’re excited to continue the innovation cycle with them!”