Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

31 March: Getting the most from open access offsetting deals, London

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.
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Getting to grips with procurement: the crucial role of governors

Nick Petford, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Northampton and Chair of Procurement UK, examines the role of governors in ensuring institutions manage resources effectively.
SUPC

SUPC takes steps to protect supply chain workers

SUPC has joined with the world-wide monitoring organisation Electronics Watch which assists public sector buyers to meet their responsibility to protect the labour rights of workers in their global electronics supply chains more effectively, and less expensively, than any single public sector buyer could accomplish on its own.
Smart procurement can save thousands of pounds

Measuring, tracking, agreeing and banking procurement benefits

Procurement teams can play an important role in releasing savings to help to reduce budgets in higher education institutions or to bank and reinvest. But Jim Reed, who has held senior procurement roles in a number of sectors, argues that there is room for improvement in how universities measure the benefits they secure.

Engaging In Radical Work: Students As Partners In Academic Publishing

Students as partners is the radical antithesis of the consumerist mind-set in higher education. Yet students have traditionally been absent from one key arena of academia: publishing. Ruth Healey, from University of Chester with co-authors Mick Healey, from University of Gloucestershire and Anthony Cliffe from Liverpool John Moores University, discuss The International Journal for Students as Partners which seeks to address this absence through pairing academic and student co-editors for all its sections.
HEPA logo

Inaugural HEPA conference on 9 October at Imperial College London

The Higher Education Procurement Academy is entering a new phase, post-ITF funding, and we have arranged an exciting conference to launch this new era....

Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of porters and cleaners

Benchmarking is increasingly used in the quest for efficiency and most universities have used the Procurement Maturity Assessment, developed by SUMS Consulting and the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortia. SUMS has now developed another maturity model that allows easy self assessment and indicates a way forward and has applied it to portering and cleaning services.
University Business logo

Finding the right contract caterer for your university

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.
HEPA logo

HEPA helps universities improve their procurement expertise

Caroline Blackman-Edney, Chair of the BUFDG Procurement Professionals Group, tells University Business magazine that, “As procurement raises its profile within an institution, more departments within it will rely on procurement expertise. Building the capacity to offer these services should be key to a university’s wider risk management strategy. HEPA provides tools which enable personnel to achieve this.”

Strategic Sourcing in Higher Education – Survey

Senior managers involved in strategic sourcing decisions within UK higher education institutions are invited to participate in a HEFCE and Leadership Foundation funded research project....