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Cambridge University Press support for the University: Notice by the Council and the Press Syndicate

26 February 2001

At their meeting on 11 December 2000, the Council received copies of a letter from the Chairman of the Press Syndicate to the Vice-Chancellor setting out the support that Cambridge University Press would extend to the University in the period 2000-03. The Council warmly welcomed the support given to the University by the Press, the main features of which are set out below:

The Press Syndicate have recently completed a review of the level and nature of its financial support for the University. The total quantifiable value of this support since 1986 is just over £40m, of which about £10m is held by the Syndicate as a Designated Fund from which income is available to the University on request. These funds have all been applied to 'purposes consonant with the Press's own statutory objectives', which has in practice meant predominantly library and printing support.

The Syndicate have determined to continue this support but also to reshape and broaden it in various ways.

The main elements in the new package are as follows:

1. The Designated Fund. The ongoing level of cash transfer into the Designated Fund will be increased to £1.5m a year for a further three-year period, that is up to the end of the academical year 2002-03.
2. Library support. The Press will offer discounts to all Cambridge College libraries and to all officially affiliated Departmental and University libraries. There will be an annual quota of free Press books to an overall value of £200,000 a year, to be divided between the libraries on an agreed basis, and a 25 per cent discount on further purchases.
3. Book discounts. The Press will offer discounts of 20 per cent on book purchases made through the Press Bookshop for all those holding a valid University Card, on presentation of the Card at the Bookshop.
4. University Publications. The present support for the University Reporter, whereby the Syndicate bears virtually all production costs, will be continued and will be extended to some other official University Publications, including Statutes and Ordinances, Guide to Courses, and University Prospectus.
5. University printing support. To replace the ad hoc cash support currently given in response to a multitude of smaller appeals, the Press will in future give this support in the form of a UPS (University Printing Services) discount on relevant printed materials. UPS will offer to undertake University and College work at cost (subject to capacity and suitability of its equipment). There will be further specific support for the University's Development Office and Press and Publications Office for projects that do not fall straightforwardly under this heading.
6. Joint Development Funds. A new category of support is to be established, serving a rather different purpose from straight cash transfers or special discounts. The aim is to foster initiatives between the Press's publishing business and different parts of the University which would create some genuinely new and shared benefits. The collaboration might take the form of joint investments, shared facilities, partnerships, or the like, and the Syndicate will set aside a budget to support a limited number of specific Press-University initiatives of the appropriate kind to the value of about £500,000 over three years.

The quantifiable total of all the forms of support outlined above is estimated on an annual basis to be in excess of £2.5m. The Syndicate are assured that all the initiatives described above will be applied to purposes of the University consistent with the Press's own.


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Cambridge University Reporter, 28 February 2001
Copyright © 2001 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.