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1. JISC Collections banding review
Or: Zen and the art of banding maintenance
Hugh Look (Banding Manager, JISC Collections)
JISC Collections
2. Because that William Gibson quote is so, like, yesterday
Miss Brunner: “You look ahead.”
Jerry Cornelius: “I look around. Ahead is here already.”
– Michael Moorcock: The Final Programme (Book 1 of the Cornelius
Quartet)
JISC Collections
3. What is the JISC Collections banding scheme?
Basis for all subscription fees for the online resources in JISC
Collections Catalogue
– For NESLi2 agreements, bands have been used as part of the basis
for establishing fees for Big Deal
All JISC Collections institutional members in UK ranked into one of
10 bands
– Further and Higher Education institutions
– Specialist Colleges
– Separate schemes for other groups such as schools or museums
BANDING IS NOT THE SAME AS PRICING
JISC Collections
4. Why do we need to review the banding?
Banding is based on public sector finance for HEIs
The shape of funding is changing dramatically
– The value of block grant funding is being reduced, especially in
teaching
– Student fees are becoming much more important
– Research funding comes from more diverse sources
Institutions are becoming more complex
– Multi-site joint ventures
– Overseas campuses
The relative incomes of institutions will change
Different elements of their income will become more important
Would need to update data even if using same metrics
JISC Collections
5. Our options
Do nothing
Update the data using the same basis for the bands
Introduce a new scheme
JISC Collections
6. Our options
Do nothing
– Bands will become increasingly detached from reality
– Inequities will become more prevalent
– We will have to kludge all the time
Update the data using the same basis for the bands
– Bands will become increasingly detached from reality
– Inequities will become more prevalent
Introduce a new scheme
– Back in touch with reality
– Complicated (and possibly painful) transition
– We can create a scheme that is much more future-proof
JISC Collections
7. Why now?
Impact of increased student fees and other changes will
not be clear for some time
Reduce uncertainty
Avoid panic!
Manage the transition, which will be (reprise)
– Complex
– Possibly painful
Here comes the Zen bit…
JISC Collections
10. The main risk
Designing a scheme to meet objections to other schemes
Or to avoid the pain of transition
– A danger with any consultative process
JISC Collections
11. How does the scheme work at the moment?
Predicated on just three elements
– HEFCE/HEFCW/SFC/DELNI recurrent grant for teaching (―T
funding‖)
– HEFCE/HEFCW/SFC/DELNI recurrent grant for research (―QR
research funding‖)
– Research Council funding
Data is transparent
– Available from HESA
We do not use now, nor have we ever used, FTE as a basis for
banding!
JISC Collections
12. What we will need to model
More complex situations
Different types of revenue
– More diverse research revenues
– Student fees
Avoiding excessive volatility
JISC Collections
13. What we need to retain or add in a new scheme
Transparency
Practicality
Adaptability to changing circumstances
– Changing sources of revenue
– Changes to research funding as well as teaching
– Mergers of large HEIs
JISC Collections
14. Proposed solution
Include all relevant income
– (UK average under old model)
– Remaining block grant funding for teaching & research (34%)
– All student fee income (31%)
• Including from overseas campuses
– Research council income (6%)
– Industry funding—research and consultancy (2%)
– Funding from charities (2%)
– Other public sector income—NHS etc (3%)
– EU funding (1%)
– These percentages vary widely depending on type of HEI
JISC Collections
15. Excluded income
Excludes a few categories that do not add to use of
information resources
– Endowment income
– Income from activities such as letting rooms in halls of residence
– Income from IP licensing
– Deferred capital grants
JISC Collections
16. I’m sure you didn’t, but just in case you drifted off for a
moment earlier on…
BANDING IS NOT THE SAME AS PRICING
Publishers make their own commercial decisions as to how to
price each band
– They frequently combine bands
– They set different ratios between bands
• Highest:lowest ranges from 2:1 to 10:1
When we implement a major review of bands, we would expect to
see publishers reconsider their pricing to ensure that their
business remains sustainable
This is the major issue for the transition
JISC Collections
17. The most conservative approach
Refresh current model with new data
Will drift further and further out of touch with both demand and
ability to pay
Over 60 institutions would still change band
Some would change by 2 bands
JISC Collections
18. The most radical
Take into account all relevant income
Reduce bands to 5 or 6
– Reduction in bands may not be that hard as is de facto position in many cases
JISC Collections
19. Implications
Revisions to banding are a strategic issue, not commercial tactics
The least disruptive model is a refresh of the current model with
new data
Broad acceptance of all relevant income model in consultation so
far
Any change to metrics create major shifts in banding
Prices will need to be realigned
– Not the purpose of the review to reduce or increase the total paid by the sector
Publishers will wish to carry out equally comprehensive review of
their prices
This will form part of future negotiations with publishers
JISC Collections
20. Implications
Whatever we do, we will need to bring in changes gradually
– Commercial adjustments need to follow
Some HEIs will pay less
Some will pay more
Need time to plan for these changes
We will make data available
JISC Collections
21. Planning the transition
Further discussions with publishers needed before a plan can be
finalised
– Publishers will need to model new pricing
– We will need to model the impact of the new pricing
We will make modelling data available to HEIs and to publishers for
their own estimating
Estimate 3 to 4 years before new scheme fully operational
Also under consideration: the “large HEI with very small demand
for a specialist resource” problem
– Some metrics for a possible solution being modelled
– But not yet tested
JISC Collections
22. I would like to hear your comments and suggestions. Send
them to:
Hugh Look
Banding manager, JISC Collections
hugh.look@jisc-collections.ac.uk
JISC Collections
23. I would like to hear your comments and suggestions. Send
them to:
Hugh Look
Banding manager, JISC Collections
hugh.look@jisc-collections.ac.uk
JISC Collections