Loughborough University and the Efficiency Exchange, the service operated by Universities UK (UUK) in partnership with Jisc, Leadership Foundation and HEFCEA have launched a new report on the potential of collaboration and shared services in UK higher education (HE).
Praise is given to the efficiency savings achieved by universities through sharing, totalling £1.38bn between 2005 and 2011, although there is a clear message that UK HE must do more to emulate the business world and further embrace a culture of collaboration if it is to remain competitive on an international stage.
The report highlights the opportunities for universities to streamline processes and create new efficiencies across internal departments, and with other institutions.
The report mentions a number of successful initiatives already in use that are increasing productivity and opening up access to expensive research assets. For example, Kit-Catalogue, a searchable online database of publically bookable equipment, developed by Loughborough University and subsequently taken in-house by Jisc, allows universities to pool their resources to create high technological capabilities.
Jisc is actively looking to support this agenda, making it easier for universities to benefit from shared infrastructure. Last year, Jisc launched the UK's first shared data centre for education and research, which is helping to lower the operational costs and increase collaboration between some of the UK's leading research institutions.
There is significant potential from taking a shared approach to new developments and work is already underway, including a business intelligence tool, developed in conjunction with HESA, that will bring together data from all UK universities, and their brokerage work on supercomputing which makes £60m of publicly funded facilities and expertise available under a standard contractual template.
The report follows a review from earlier this year led by Professor Sir Ian Diamond, on 'Efficiency, effectiveness and value for money' in UK HE, which highlighted shared services as 'critical' in improving quality and lowering costs. It was written by Andrew Rothwell, director of MBA programmes, and Ian Herbert, deputy director of the centre of global sourcing and services, programme director (Singapore) and senior lecturer in accounting and financial management, both at the school of business and economics, Loughborough University.
