Various H E sector-owned and shared services providers presented sessions to BUFDG members about the services they provide, and why they are beneficial and efficient for universities and H E institutions to use. The sessions were all recorded and can be accessed below, along with slides where relevant.
The information provided in these recordings can help institutions learn more about which services might be useful for them in their search for efficiencies, and potentially grow the use of sector-owned and shared services within the sector.
If you want to narrow down which session recording(s) you should start with, you can read a summary of all the sessions, including BUFDG staff views, in the document below.
Hear from one of the biggest providers of shared services in the H E sector, providing digital infrastructure and services, about their contracts with some of the largest suppliers. The session emphasises the need for CFOs/FDs and their teams to engage in the sector-wide digital procurement strategy, participate in consultation processes, and support collaborative approaches to reduce institutional duplication and risk while maintaining autonomy.
This shared service provides: a tailored Information Security Service, shared CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) support. Data Protection and Governance share service (including a Data Protection Officer and Information Rights Officer), and UniDesk - provision of IT Service Management. As well as efficiencies, the service offers potential for significant risk reduction.
As a not-for-profit, member-owned organisation, TEC currently serves c.75% of the H E sector across England and Wales, helping members manage their energy estate assets effectively from the perspective of cost, consumption and carbon. This session looked at collective procurement, or “bulk buying”, within wholesale energy markets, contract management benefits through collective scale and wholesale market access, trading advantages including dedicated market monitoring and risk management, and bureau services that provide bill validation, forecasting, and operational support.
TU Pay is a BACS-approved Payroll and Pension service specifically tailored for the education sector, with the backing of Teesside University. As well as obviously making sure your staff are paid on time, a key benefit is the ‘advisory-led’ nature of the service, where they’re proactive in providing pay, pension, and legal advice, supporting compliant decision-making. So every university in the service contributes to and gets the benefit of the shared in-house team.
This session covered the broad range of SUMS’ expertise, and how their membership model helps universities access community-based insight and learning. SUMS Consulting is a specialist higher education consultancy - working for and owned by universities. In 2024/25 SUMS successfully delivered over 330 assignments to universities, and their members/clients value SUMS' ability to solve complex problems while helping them achieve tangible value. The session also highlighted SUMS' Organisational Efficiency Maturity Assessment (OEMA) tool and the teaching space needs analysis tool.
The University of London Federation brings together 17 autonomous institutions, enabling collaboration across a diverse H E (and FE) landscape and leveraging the collective scale and influence of the group. The model facilitates “coalitions of the willing”, supporting activity ranging from shared infrastructure and procurement to global education delivery and major sustainability projects. The Federation's Collaboration Hub enables institutions to collaborate where it adds value, balancing shared capability with institutional independence.
NORMAN is a managed service desk supporting staff and students at 40 universities (so far!) with IT support across a whole range of areas including operating systems, cloud-based productivity tools, cyber security, and virtual learning environments. NORMAN enables universities to extend IT and student support services while controlling costs, providing access to a shared capability that would be difficult and costly to sustain individually. The session explored the key factors that have allowed NORMAN to build trust and operate successfully across multiple institutions, including deep sector expertise, close institutional relationships, and sustained investment in shared capability.
How does a shared service internal audit model deliver far more than traditional assurance? Drawing on deep H E expertise and cross-sector intelligence from a growing national portfolio of 27 institutions, the session explained how Uniac strengthens governance, anticipates emerging risks, and generates insight that no single university could achieve alone. It also looked at how shared thematic analysis, benchmarking, and collaborative learning create richer, faster, and more impactful internal audit outcomes, as well as Uniac specialised offerings in areas such as cybersecurity, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) compliance, financial sustainability support, and additional services including governance reviews and fraud investigations.
UMAL is a sector-owned insurance mutual providing specialist cover, claims handling, and risk support for higher and further education institutions. Owned by its members, the service reinvests surpluses back into the sector while offering efficiencies such as no insurance premium tax and reduced intermediary costs. What really stands out is the integrated model, which combines underwriting, claims, and risk management with deep sector expertise, enabling institutions to benefit from shared insight and proactively manage an increasingly complex risk landscape.
The session presented by Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC) and the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) provided an overview of the two shared services currently in operation across the UK for institutional procurement services, as well as looking at the future plans for further shared services in Scotland beyond procurement. They also highlighted how UKUPC operates as a strategic collaboration of eight consortia across the UK, delivering a number of framework agreements across common categories. They also addressed common concerns about competition between institutions and explained how confidentiality is maintained while still enabling knowledge sharing.
KCG Audit is a not-for-profit internal audit service dedicated to the H E sector, combining the benefits of a shared service with deep institutional expertise. The service is evolving beyond traditional audit, focusing on forward-looking risk, agility, and strategic insight across areas such as financial sustainability, data, and transformation. By sharing sector knowledge and adapting audit plans to emerging risks, KCG helps institutions move from compliance-led assurance to more dynamic, value-adding support. This session highlighted the untapped potential of internal audit to add meaningful value, where traditional approaches often fall short in providing the strategic insight required, looking at how internal audit can evolve to meet these expectations and support more informed decision-making. The session also looked at KCG’s structure as a cost sharing group.
