This may seem a fairly obvious article and piece of advice to provide, but there are a lot of different issues that arise when it comes to placing an order for transcription or translation work at a university. We are specialists in academic transcription and translation work and we work with universities across the UK and worldwide.
French Universities – Example
Every university seems to have its own specific requirements when it comes to placing an order. Take French universities for example. We regularly undertake work on behalf of academic clients in France, providing transcription and translation services to a range of French universities including Paris Cité University and l’université de Bordeaux. To place an order and get paid for this work, clients at the universities have to provide us with a reference number which in turn has to be put onto an online purchasing system called Chorus that is used by every university in France.
Once the work is complete we have to invoice via Chorus and post our invoices directly onto the system so that they can be processed by the individual university’s finance team. There are about three or four different pieces of information that have to go on to that document, and if you had not worked with those universities before, you would probably struggle to get the work booked in and also you to be paid as the supplier. We are listed as suppliers to those universities, which means that everything is already on the system for them and we are ready to go each time a new order is placed.
UK Universities – Point of Contact
Similarly, other universities have a specific point of contact within the university for transcription work to be cleared.
Take for example a university in the southwest. If any of their PhD students require transcription work completing for their thesis or specific research, there is a named person within that particular university who is responsible for processing all the orders and determining how the work is completed. If a PhD students placed an order with you it would take you and them a very long time indeed to actually work out what you should be doing next if you had not been working with the university before.
University Transcriptions have been working with that particular university for a very long time, so if any PhD students do place an order we can advise them on how to get their funding approved, who to speak to and how they get the whole process undertaken within the university.
Data Processing Agreements
Most universities have a specific requirement for any suppliers undertaking work with research data to have signed a data processing agreement and have that in place across the university. Similarly, they can require the providers to hold ISO and Cyber Essentials accreditation. Quite often a supplier number is only given out after particular information has been supplied and the university has been through a verification process.
For most universities in the UK, University Transcriptions and TP Transcription Limited are recognised suppliers with the ability to process orders because we have been approved by the appropriate department at individual institutions.
Advice for Specific Universities
If you have a piece of work to complete and would like assistance in getting it approved by a specific university, feel free to contact us. For a good number of the universities across the UK and Europe we know the correct procedure and the appropriate person for you to contact.
We are always happy to assist with the completion of purchase orders and provide templates for supplier agreements, data processing agreements and service level agreements. We have existing service level agreements in place for particular universities, and very often it is simply a case of us providing you with the generic copy of the agreement that we hold in order for you to get approval for your work.
