Procurement

The impact of better and smarter procurement across the higher education sector has been significant. The Efficiency Measurement Model survey has shown that procurement efficiencies totalled £153m in 2013–14 with more than £435m of efficiency and cost savings evidenced in the past three years alone.

Sir Ian Diamond’s report on Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money includes an update on progress to professionalise and optimise procurement in universities, including the work of the Higher Education Procurement Academy and Procurement Maturity Assessments delivered by SUPC.

Higher Education Procurement Academy (HEPA)

The professional development service for all university staff who buy goods and services. HEPA offers professional development and training, competency frameworks and job templates for purchasing roles, as well as online case studies, resources and forums.

Procurement Maturity Assessments (PMAs)

A low-cost service for benchmarking procurement performance and driving improvement, offered by Southern Universities Procurement Consortium (SUPC), in collaboration with BUFDG. The service helps you understand procurement potential and training needs at your institution, and provides a diagnostic report, benchmarked comparisons with other universities, and a bespoke action plan.

Strategic sourcing toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help senior managers in higher education analyse and plan procurement in a way that supports their institution at a strategic level. Developed by the University of the West of England with funding from the Innovation and Transformation Fund.

See also