JISC Collections

JISC Collections banding reviewOr: Zen and the art of banding maintenance

Hugh Look (Banding Manager, JISC Collections)

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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)

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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

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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

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Our options

Do nothing

Update the data using the same basis for the bands

Introduce a new scheme

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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

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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…

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The main risk

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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

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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!

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What we will need to model

More complex situations

Different types of revenue– More diverse research revenues

– Student fees

Avoiding excessive volatility

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

Discussion