General Associate (GA) and Associate Limited Access (ALA): Non-employee Relationships
The University of Calgary community is made up of many different types of relationships. While these consist primarily of staff and students, there are many other people (non-employees) with a variety of relationships that support the university in achieving its Ahead of Tomorrow strategic goals. To allow these people access to university systems and facilities, either a General Associate or an Associate - Limited Access relationship is required.
General Associate (GA) is a relationship someone who is not a staff member but engages in activities that enable teaching and research at the university. A General Associate will be given basic access to university systems, similar to that of a staff member and they or their assigned manager can request other system accesses via the university's security provisioning tool.
Examples of this relationship include: Visiting Scholars, Guest Postdoctoral Scholars, and Contractors/Consultants.
More information on General Associates can be found below.
Associate - Limited Access (ALA) is a different type of system relationship for an individual who is not a student or a staff but requires an association with the University. This relationship type does not require access to other University systems or services other than UCID, IT account and email. It will allow Community library borrowing privileges. All requests require the completion of a form which must be signed by the Department Budget Owner prior - contact UService (hr@ucalgary.ca) to inquire for more details and for a copy of the form to request access.
Both General Associate, Associate - Limited Access are assigned with an end date up to a maximum of two years and unless extended will automatically end on that end date.
Setting up a General Associate
There are a number of types of General Associate relationships, some with various sub-types.
Please choose carefully as each type has specific definitions and have different Approvers/Business Owner who will validate requests for that General Associate type.
Typically these request are made through Template Based Hire (TBH) - please refer to the link on the right for instructions to complete a hire.
For more information or sample invitation letters to include with the hire request, please refer the "Inviting Visitors to Campus" on the right or contact UService if you have questions (hr@ucalgary.ca).
Definition: Postdoctoral scholar getting research training at the university but who is compensated through an external fellowship/stipend and not through the university.
Business Owner: Postdoc Office
How to Apply:
- Contact the Postdoc Office for eligibility and Appointment process.
- Postdoc Office will also assist with the invitation letter to meet* immigration requirements.
*General Associates coming from outside of Canada may have additional rules and requirements. See Hiring Foreign Workers for more information.
Definition: This relationship applies to the certain Academic or business visitors. Examples include:
- Visiting Professor/Scholar/Researcher
- Guest Lecturer
- Self-funded Researcher
- Research Award Recipient
- Business Visitors
Check out Inviting Visitors to Campus for more information or sample invitation letters to include with the hire request.
Important - International visitor categories require assessment for immigration considerations. It is important to review the details and process found in International Visitor website before submitting a Template Based Hire. International persons hired in these categories may require a unique TBH template and/or work permits.
Definition: An individual contracted to perform work at the university but is either a sole proprietorship or employed by a contract company or vendor of the university. This includes professional consultants/technicians, contractor in Labour Services, temporary agency personnel, etc.
Business Owner: Supply Chain Management
How to Apply:
- Contact Supply Chain Management to help determine whether a Service Provider should be hired and paid as an employee or as an Independent Contractor. The Procurement Handbook contains information to help you set up a vendor relationship
- Once a contractor/consultant relationship has been established, a university manager (or delegate) who will manage this relationship will need to initiate a Template Based Hire to create this General Associate relationship. A valid PO number is required for validation purposes while submitting the TBH request.
Refer to the Creating a General Associate Relationship using TBH Quick Reference Guide.
Definition: Research administrators who complete administrative functions (e.g. Submitting expense claims, updating Academic Performance Reports) on behalf of a university staff member. This type of relationship includes Research/Clinical Administrators from Alberta Health Services (AHS) and other affiliated groups.
How to Apply: The university manager (or delegate) who will manage this relationship initiates the Template Based Hire to create this General Associate relationship.
Refer to the Creating a General Associate Relationship using TBH Quick Reference Guide.
This is a specific relationship for those external individuals who need to remotely access the secure compute and High Performance Compute (HPC) resources at the University of Calgary. Researchers in this category require a Principal Investigator (PI) or a PI delegate to submit a Template Based Hire (TBH) with the "Gen Associate – External Research Collaborator” template. These requests require approval by Research Computing Services, who is managing HPC. Once the transaction is approved, it will go to HR to complete the hiring process and the new account will be ready for your associate.
Please visit the following page for more important considerations and resources (eg. sample invitation letters) when inviting someone to campus or collaborate.