Becoming a student again

This week I was delighted to accept the offer of a place to study History of Art and Architecture at Birkbeck, University of London.

It’s a part-time Graduate Certificate course, meaning that I’ll attend lectures for one evening a week at the School of Arts in Gordon Square and perhaps the occasional Saturday workshop.  Teaching will be at the level of a final year undergraduate course.

Of course, I’ll be doing this for fun, pursuing a long-time personal interest in the subject.  I’m not about to give up the job I love!  But I do harbour an ambition to study for an MA in History of Art at some time in the (perhaps distant) future and this course serves to convert the BA in Architecture that I gained back in 1987.

It won’t be my first return to studentship.  In 2003 I took a part-time MBA at Kingston University.  Obviously that was pretty hard work – about 20 hours a week of study on top of a full-time job – but I enjoyed it immensely and I’m excited to be back in education.

There’s also the opportunity to look at HE from the perspective of a student, having spent the last four years working in the sector.  I hope to be able to glean something from the experience that might help LUPC deliver a better service in some way.

We shall see.  I enrol in October.

Why better procurement is vital to the sustainability of higher education

Click here to find out about collaborative supply agreements available from LUPC.

HE’s financial health… and a missed opportunity

HEFCE has just published its report on the Financial Health of the Higher Education Sector for 2011-12, right on the eve of funding letters going out to universities telling them how much their recurrent teaching, research and capital grants will be for 2013-14.

We’ve already been warned to expect significant future reductions in grant funding as we head toward the next Comprehensive Spending Review, not all of which may be off-set by increases in income from student loan funding.

Although the report says that the sector remains financially healthy, it reports that total income for universities actually fell in real terms during 2011-12, for the very first time since records began.

However, despite capital funding from HEFCE falling, total capital expenditure in the sector actually rose, funded partly from universities’ own reserves.  And notably, for the second year running, staff costs fell to under 53% of income.

So you’d think this would be an excellent opportunity to highlight the growing strategic importance of procurement by universities, right?  After all, spend on buildings, goods and services is a growing proportion of of the total and as we face a tougher, more competitive future, so the focus on professional third-party spend management has to sharpen… surely?

But no, not even a mention of procurement in the report.  Of capital spend, yes, but even though staff costs now account for just over half and procurement spend will account for at least a good three-quarters of the remainder… nothing.  Not a dickie bird.

We don’t actually know what the sanction will be if the sector fails to attain the efficiency targets set by the Diamond Report.  Some say measures would be imposed on the sector.  What is clear is that they cannot be left to procurement officers alone to achieve, any more than financial goals can be solved just by FDs or staffing issues left entirely to HR.  It’ll take effort from everyone who gets involved in spending money.  But right now, still too few are even aware of the issues.

And missed opportunities like this one won’t help us.

LUPC Conference: First Pictures

LUPC Conference 2013 was held at the prestigious Senate House, University of London on 28 February 2013

Panellists included (L to R) LUPC Chair Marcus McDonald, University of Greenwich Head of Sustainability Kat Thorne and Supply Management Editor, Rebecca Ellinor

Professor Nick Petford, Vice Chancellor of the University of Northampton and Chair, Procurement UK

Over 50 suppliers exhibited at LUPC Conference 2013

LUPC Conference: “A Very Positive Vibe”

The reaction we’ve been getting to LUPC’s first ever Members’ Conference has been great. I’d like to thank all our Members and guests for participating and all our speakers, workshop leaders and especially our exhibitors for making it so engaging.  And I especially want to thank our own Head of Membership, Laura Compton, for making it all happen.

As Supply Management reports, our keynote speaker, Professor Nick Petford, Vice Chancellor of the University of Northampton and chair of Procurement UK, told the Conference that if the HE sector didn’t find ways to make savings itself, then there was a risk it would have savings targets thrust upon it by government.

Despite the challenges facing the sector, our speaker, procurement author, blogger and commentator Peter Smith has reported the “very positive vibe” he encountered at our Conference from delegates engaged in the discussions.

And at a reception held on the eve of the Conference for Members and exhibitors, sponsored by law firm Veale Wasbrough Vizards at the British Library, a lecture delivered by Jae Mather, Director of Sustainability at HW Fisher & Co provoked a very lively reaction from the audience.

We’re absolutely thrilled with the way our Conference has turned out.   We’ll be posting slide presentations from the sessions along with photos on the website in the next few days.   But now our task is to turn our thoughts to how LUPC and our Members can channel all this positive energy into achieving our collective goals.

NDNA: The task begins

On Wednesday, LUPC closed its doors to tender submissions for the supply of desktop PCs and notebooks for up to the next four years.

Our National Desktop and Notebook Agreement for the higher education sector and other Members in our neighbouring arts, sciences and cultural sectors is worth up to £320m. Bids from ten manufacturers in all were received before the deadline, the last arriving just 80 seconds before the shutters came down on our eTendering Portal.

Mike Kilner’s eleven-strong expert tender working group, drawn from HE institutions the length and breadth of the country, now faces an enormous task in evaluating and assessing the bids. In what is arguably the most intensive competitive process to supply IT equipment in public service, Mike and the team will assess a total of 1,660 responses to questions and other requests for essential information from the bidders before the award can be made in late June.

Quite a task.

The Human Cost of Healthcare

On Friday I attended the Public Sector Working Group meeting hosted by the Ethical Trading Initiative at their HQ here in London.  The purpose was to share information and good practice on fair and ethical trading across public service organisations.

The meeting was chaired by Tim Rudin, Responsible Procurement Manager at the Greater London Authority.  There were representatives present from the NHS, London Fire Brigade, Metropolitan Police and the Environment Agency, making a strong line-up and one I knew I’d be able to learn from.

Also attending was Mahmood Bhutta, who is an ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon.  It was an inspiring change to meet an actual clinician at an event like this, and he had come with a message.

Mahmood was representing the BMA’s Medical Fair & Ethical Trade Group, formed with the aim of improving conditions for workers, some as young as seven, who are producing surgical instruments in developing countries like Pakistan for use in the NHS.  He presented a video (above) that carries a very poignant and compelling message.

It made me realise that, although some individual Members may have well worked-out ethical trading policies, many don’t look beyond Fairtrade tea and coffee.  And at LUPC, we have no ethical trading policy at all beyond our legal obligations – not for laboratory consumables, not for IT products.  Not for anything, in fact.

Time for a change, then.