Procurement

New research shows improvements in procurement across England's higher education sector over the last five years have resulted in a rise in savings and efficiencies of more than 50%. The findings come in the latest survey of Efficiency Measurement Model (EMM) data carried out by North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium (NWUPC) on behalf of Procurement England Ltd (PEL), a company that brings together the four English purchasing consortia.

Universities are saving money by extending the useful life of IT equipment and offsetting the costs of replacing them through recouping some of their residual value through recycling, this University Business article discovers.

The Procurement Journey gives procurement professionals and wider institutional buyers access to a comprehensive 'how to' guide to procurement, including a wealth of useful materials, standardised documentation, up-to-date legislation information, and references to appropriate external advice websites. It has been professionally reviewed, and is now available online for use across the sector.

Learn more about Jisc's negotiated deals to help reduce the costs of publishing open access articles. Participants will gain an improved understanding of the six different offsetting deals offered by Jisc and how the burden of managing article processing charges can be reduced.

LUPC's annual conference and exhibition will take place on Thursday 26 March 2015 at Senate House, London. The conference will be FREE for LUPC Members to attend.

Collaborating, upskilling buyers and factoring in social impact are three key ways in which the higher education sector is achieving efficiencies via smarter procurement practices, says Nick Petford, vice-chancellor of the University of Northampton and chair of Procurement UK. Read more of his guest post on ProcurementLeaders.com.

Many UK universities are deciding that catering is an outside job and are teaming up with external providers. This article in University Business looks at the experiences of universities and contract caterers in forming partnerships and working together.