Procurement

In the second part of our focus on Coventry University’s procurement service, its head Mike Hanson explains how investing in his workforce has helped the university deliver 30% in savings through more efficient procurement.

Coventry University has sought to become a “no hidden extras” university by providing core textbooks to undergraduates. Michael Duffy explains how the university’s procurement team rose to the challenge of giving students more for their investment.

The higher education energy market is becoming increasingly competitive. Richard Murphy from the public buying organisation The Energy Consortium (TEC) warns of the hidden dangers in the contracting process and urges universities to involve a broad range of departments when procuring energy services.

Outsourcing is an increasingly popular way for universities to keep costs down and to focus their activities on their core business, but there are risks involved. London Universities Purchasing Consortium's Andy Davies gives his top 10 tips for managing big-ticket outsourced contracts.

The second phase of efficiency work in higher education led by Professor Sir Ian Diamond and coordinated by Universities UK is well under way and a report will be published next February. Watch this space for a forthcoming series of articles to highlight this work which we will be publishing over the coming weeks. In the meantime, we thought it would be interesting to re-share some of the best examples of good practice we've found - for those of you who might have missed them first time around. Today: a selection of case studies on procurement.

Subscription fees for software and other online resources can amount to a substantial sum for universities. Eduserv’s Jenny Carroll explains how its licences for these products help higher education budgets to go further.

English universities’ procurement efficiencies have saved tens of millions of pounds in a year, according to a survey by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).

HEPA (Higher Education Procurement Academy) training dates have now been confirmed, with 10 courses across 5 locations during 2014-15.

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....