About the sector
The institutions, which make up the higher education and research communities within the United Kingdom, spend in excess of £4 billion annually on goods and services. By any standard the sector is an important and attractive market place to the many suppliers who have, or would like to have a share of this substantial volume of business.
The Higher Education Purchasing Directory e-book (to purchase a hard copy, please go to bottom of page 2) is kept as up to date as possible with details of the overwhelming majority of the sector members, both by number and financial resource. These are all of the universities of the United Kingdom, the Research Councils and their establishments and the colleges of higher and further education. The Directory is designed to provide suppliers, present and potential, with a clearer insight into how the sector's purchasing interests are organised and co-ordinated and how they might be approached to best effect.
Universities in the UK are autonomous, independent bodies established by Royal Charter and each can develop its own distinctive mission The buying and selling interfaces between the HE community and the many thousands of suppliers are varied and complex. Just as there are many thousands of suppliers to the sector, so are there many thousands of buyers within the sector. Most institutions operate through systems of devolved financial management and the authority to purchase goods and services frequently rests with colleges, schools or departments and, in many instances, with a number of staff and/or cost centres at a further level of devolution.
