JISC Collections is reviewing its banding scheme which determines subscription fees for online resources. The current scheme bases bands on public funding for higher education institutions, but this is changing. Options include doing nothing, updating data with the same scheme, or introducing a new scheme. A new scheme could better reflect the diversity of institutional incomes but would require a complex transition. JISC Collections aims to design a transparent, practical, and adaptable new banding scheme.

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

8. JISC Collections

9. The main risk
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

24. Discussion
JISC Collections