The University of Hertfordshire took part in an independent study to investigate the value it gets from its Jisc membership.

1. The value of Jisc to
higher education
A value study from the University of Hertfordshire

2. The University of Hertfordshire
took part in an independent study
to investigate the value it gets
from its Jisc membership.
2 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

3. Introduction
The university worked with independent consultant Richard Hadfield to
analyse its Jisc service portfolio for:
Cost savings
Costs avoided
Benefits to students, staff and the whole university
This is what it discovered.
3 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

4. Value for money
Cost of Jisc subscription for 2018/19 to University of Hertfordshire:
£66,000
excl VAT
(The full cost of Jisc is £238,000 excl VAT if the £172k government contribution
via Hefce, OfS and Research England is included)
4 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

5. Value for money - subscription
University of Hertfordshire’s £66,000 subscription breaks down into:
Connectivity (Janet, eduroam, managed router service) - £47,000
Cyber security - £9,000
Library support - £6,000
Open access - £3,000
Other services - £1,400
5 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

6. However.
Annual cost saving
enabled by Jisc =
£1.26m
One off savings =
£1.2m
Annual costs avoided =
£258k
How?
6 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

7. Value for money - breakdown
• The Janet Network and cyber protection enables a £380,000
cost saving per year v. an alternative provider
• Jisc Collections enables £882,000 cost savings per year
• Jisc’s digital archival collections has enabled £1.2m of one-off
cost savings
• There are £38,000 of other one-off cost savings
• Jisc also helps University of Hertfordshire avoid £258,000 of
costs through preventing cyber attack outages and avoiding
the costs of additional support staff and services
7 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

8. More than value
University of Hertfordshire
would NOT invest £882,000
and £1.2m if Jisc Collections-
enabled savings did not exist.
The alternative, in
reality, is the use of
sub optimal resources,
fewer resources for
students and a greater
reliance on academics’
resourcefulness –
and time.
The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire
8

9. Connectivity and cyber security - trust
University of Hertfordshire has high levels of trust in the
Janet network and cyber protection
It recognises:
Jisc’s development and
investment in future cyber
protection services
Jisc’s provision of a dedicated
cyber team that the university
could otherwise not afford
The university’s increased
reliance on the cloud (eg internet
telephony) = increased risk = need
for best-in-class possible protection
Proactivity of the Jisc cyber
team: “we didn’t even know
anything had happened”
9 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

10. Research
For researchers, Jisc enables compliance and effort avoidance.
Sherpa RoMEO has
publication search
benefits and ensures
compliance within
workflow
Sherpa RoMEO saves
38 working days of
library and computing
services support effort:
£8,000 of staff costs
University of
Hertfordshire also
uses Jisc’s
OpenDOAR and
CORE
1
0
The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

11. Research continued
“The Sherpa info is very valuable. It is our working practice to rely
on it as an indicator of REF compliance for Green OA, and it is
available as part of the Pure workflow, without the need to look
elsewhere. Without it we would have to rely on community
resources such as the UK-CORR list, which are good quality but
not embedded or quite so easily accessible as the Sherpa
websites. Researchers in particular would struggle.”
Graham Davies, University of Hertfordshire’s head of academic resources
11 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

12. And that's not all
There are even more Jisc services University of Hertfordshire
could benefit from as part of its subscription:
Data and information
intelligence –
Learner analytics
(future), Interactive
Insights and
Analytics Lab (now)
Student
and staff
support
Continued use
of Jisc Digital
Insights and
Capabilities
alongside
digital
leadership
support
Publications
Router to save
library and
computing
services time
and effort
Zetoc for
researchers
12 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

13. Summary
For the University of Hertfordshire:
Jisc is relevant
Jisc enables learning, research and support activities in various ways.
Jisc provides value for money
Jisc supports university priorities and all stakeholders, particularly library
and academic/research support staff
University of Hertfordshire highly values the Janet network and the
protection it provides
13 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire

14. “The value is that we know you know our business”
14 The value of Jisc to higher education - The University of Hertfordshire