A foundation for future collaboration: saving money with the University of London
Through a Jisc-supported pilot of collaborative licensing, The University of London unlocked major cost savings, streamlined access and built a foundation for future sector-wide collaboration.
We’re all better when we work together, as a successful Jisc-supported pilot of a new collaborative licensing model for the University of London’s libraries proved.
Building on our established expertise in negotiating national licences, the University of London approached us to explore how a smaller group of institutions could benefit from collaboration where national-level arrangements weren’t in place. The pilot demonstrated that our model can deliver real financial savings and wider access at a local scale, complementing our ongoing national work.
UoL is a federation of 17 institutions, each with its own library, and all users of Senate House Library as a central resource. Until this pilot, each institution purchased its own licences for digital content.
With expert support from Jisc consultancy, Senate House funded the pilot, which brought it together with King’s College London, Royal Holloway and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD).
The project achieved savings of more than £140,000, fostered a new culture of collaboration and acts as a proof of concept that can be replicated for similar organisations across the UK.
The beginnings of collaboration
As part of its wider library transformation programme, Senate House funded the collaborative pilot, supported by Jisc, to explore the potential for consortial licensing.
The pilot originated from a decision by the Federal Libraries Group to widen its focus from scrutiny to exploring collaboration. The group is a regular forum where librarians across the federation’s institutions come together to receive reports and discuss the service provided by Senate House Library.
In 2019 the group decided to work together to identify opportunities to work collegiately and collectively for mutual benefit.
“There was a recognition that Senate House Library was a jewel in the crown of the University of London, but it needed investment in order to take it to the next level, and the sense that it needed to be ambitious. One of these ambitious ideas was this idea of consortium licensing and resources.”
– Nick Skelton, consultant in digital HE, Jisc
To test the challenges and opportunities for differently sized institutions, the decision was made to start small. The project involved one small institution (CSSD), one medium (Royal Holloway) and one large (King’s College London), and negotiated with three publishers.
Expected outcomes included financial savings, reduced administrative time and widening access to resources.
“In the most recent statistics we have, the amount of money that Senate House and the federation institutions spent on content was £44 million, so that's a lot of buying power. If we work together, we have much greater bargaining power. It’s an obvious win, but there’s just never been the organisational will to take it forward before.”
- Catriona Cannon, librarian and programme director, library transformation programme, Senate House Library
Making it happen
In his role as chair of the Federal Libraries Group, Christopher Cipkin, director of library, learning support and culture at Royal Holloway, worked with Catriona Cannon and Jisc’s Nick Skelton on the approach. Christopher was later succeeded as chair by Andrew Preater, director of library services at Goldsmiths, who continued this work.
With our guidance, Senate House Library acted as broker, approaching publishers to negotiate library resources on behalf of the pilot institutions.
Although there were highly technical, legal and financial aspects to be worked through, a key focus was bringing institutions and members on board and securing buy-in for a new way of working.
“Even though there's so much to be gained from shared services and collaboration in the sector, there are a lot of things that put in place competition between universities. So collaboration can be more difficult, psychologically as well as structurally, than you would think.”
- Catriona Cannon
The power of group negotiations
Between December 2023 and August 2024, the consortium successfully negotiated resources with three publishers – Box of Broadcasts, Cite Them Right and Gale Cengage (for certain sets of British Library Newspapers).
The project created close working relationships among the group, saved time compared to separate negotiations, and secured better terms than publishers’ standard contracts.
Discounts were achieved by leveraging the combined scale of the institutions, budget constraints, and a willingness to commit to multi-year licences in some cases.
The results were discounts of between 16% and 24%, amounting to an overall saving of £143,000.
Valuable insights for future collaborations
From our perspective, the success of the pilot has provided valuable experience and insight that will help enable similar projects with other groups of institutions across the UK. While national and regional consortia already exist, this pilot proved that smaller groups such as UoL can achieve comparable benefits where national-level agreements aren’t in place.
For UoL, the proof of concept empowers the federation to take collective negotiation forward as a self-sustaining, business-as-usual activity funded by members across the federation, with continued leadership and administrative contributions from Senate House.
“It’s important for institutions in the pilot that there has been financial return. But it’s also about building on that sense of trust, and the opportunities of that door now being open to collaborate in other ways and enjoy the benefits of that approach.”
- Christopher Cipkin
A model for change
The pilot aligns with the sector’s ongoing interest in shared services across the sector, as highlighted in the Universities UK report, led by Jisc, opportunities for efficiency through shared services and our collaboration for a sustainable future report.
It is particularly relevant at a time when the higher education sector faces a challenging economic climate, with voluntary severance and redundancies an inevitable consequence of tighter budgets.
The pilot provided clear evidence of the effectiveness of collaboration to achieve transformation and efficiency gains.
Feedback about our approach
Our attitude was to advise but also to take a hands-on approach to drive the change, effectively working in the twin roles of consultant and project manager.
“Rather than classic consultancy, where an expert would come in and then submit a report, with some recommendations, providing some sense of direction or strategy, this was more about project management and facilitation – proving it could be done and making it happen.”
- Nick Skelton
This approach was appreciated by the member institutions.
“Jisc were brilliant – they made sure that the project was on track, they never missed a monthly meeting to keep monitoring and then Nick was absolutely outstanding as a project manager, such a pleasure to work with.”
- Catriona Cannon
“It wasn't just about the technical and legal aspects – Nick and the team at Jisc understood the culture, and what would work and what wouldn't. They made sure we moved in the same direction at the speed we needed to go, so we didn't rush ahead and leave people behind. It’s as much about people as it is about technology.”
- Christopher Cipkin
Find out more
- Explore our consultancy services and how we can support collaborative licensing models
- Read the UUK report on shared services and collaboration
- Read our collaboration for a sustainable future report