| Date |
|---|
| 23rd April 2020 |
Chair of the UK Universities Purchasing Consortia (UKUPC) Board, Richard Murphy and SUPC CEO Bernarde Hyde have issued a statement outlining the consortia’s support and services to the HE sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
The statement says: “UKUPC is able to provide increased value to the HE sector during this difficult time, there is scope for use/uptake of UKUPC collaborative agreements to expand and deliver further savings and efficiencies to institutions.”
This comes on the heels of the recent Universities UK paper outlining a package of measures proposed to enable universities to play a critical role in rebuilding the nation. The UUK paper was sent to the Chancellor, Secretaries of State for Education and Business, and to the Ministers for Universities and Science, Research & Innovation. In it, UUK notes, “Universities recognise that even with government investment significant action to reduce costs is necessary and are already making efforts to reduce costs as much as possible. For example, through tight controls on procurement, delaying capital projects and freezing recruitment.”
The statement from UKUPC further outlines how procurement consortia can help. “As well as procurement support, UKUPC is able to provide additional value-added services through learning and development, key research and reports, and personalised procurement services to generate additional savings.”
UKUPC (UK Universities Purchasing Consortia) is the evolved convergence of eight UK Consortia; APUC, HEPCW, LUPC, NEUPC, NWUPC, SUPC, TEC and TUCO who created a formal partnership to support collaborative procurement within Higher Education. We work together to maximise use of the sector’s combined leverage, share knowledge and best practice and to support our wider procurement community.