JISC Collections has commissioned Hugh Look, Senior Consultant at Rightscom Ltd, to review the JISC Collections banding scheme in the light of changes in the way universities are being funded. It is clear that the major changes in the way teaching and research are going to be funded will have significant implications for the way HEIs purchase information resources. The JISC Collections banding scheme has been operating for some years, and the underlying models and assumptions need a thorough review to make sure that they will deal with the much more complex funding situations that will arise in the near future as well as the longer term.
Information about the current scheme can be found at http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Help-and-information/JISC-Banding/.
Hugh has acted as banding scheme consultant to JISC Collections the scheme for several years. He will be consulting the relevant stakeholders in the next few weeks, including librarians, publishers and financial managers in HEIs. The consultations will focus on the impact of the new funding regime and the main factors that should influence a revised banding model.
Once the consultation has been completed, the revised models will be tested against different scenarios to make sure that they will work in the widest possible range of conditions. We are approaching the review very carefully, as we are aware of its importance to libraries, publishers, and readers. Ensuring that a new model maintains all the core benefits of the existing one will be a major priority for the review.
At the moment, the review will focus on HEIs: the position for Further Education Colleges is different and at present the existing model still works effectively for FECs. We will continue to monitor the situation, and bear in mind the need to maintain alignment of the banding for each sector. The banding models will also need to take into account new types of institution, including the University Technical Colleges launched in 2010.
We will also be allowing for the different approaches to funding in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Further information
For more information about the review, please contact Hugh Look at futureglance (hl@futureglance.com) or Lorraine Estelle, Chief Executive of JISC Collections (l.estelle@jisc-collections.ac.uk).
