About us

Vision

The University of Surrey is one of the UK’s leading professional, scientific and technological universities with a world-class reputation for excellence in teaching and research. With an attractive and ever-growing campus, it supports students and leading academics in their field. It is a university that recognises academic excellence at the same time as striving to run an efficient business to maximise the services it offers to students, staff and the local community.

Processes

The process of placing individual orders with suppliers is largely devolved to faculties and departments, using an integrated purchase to pay finance system. However, the end-to-end process is closely co-ordinated to ensure that goods and services are ordered efficiently and invoices paid promptly, whilst operating within the both the University’s Finance Regulations and the Procurement Policy and Procedures.

The Procurement Department is responsible for ensuring that the best long-term value for money is obtained with regards to all goods and services. The department is responsible for implementing best practice and directly supporting all corporate, high value and strategic procurements.

The University of Surrey is a member of the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium. 

With effect from 1 August 2017 (the start of the University's financial year) the University, having taken advice from Queen's Counsel, has reviewed its governance and income and determined that it is not a 'contracting authority' for the purposes of the EU public procurement regime (Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/23/EU as implemented in the UK by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016).

However, in certain circumstances, the University reserves the right that despite not being under a general legal obligation to adhere to the EU procurement rules it may voluntarily (from time to time at its own discretion) undertake some concession and procurement exercises in accordance with the EU public procurement regime (as implemented in the UK by the above-mentioned regulations).

Strategy

The Procurement Strategy (PDF) typically covers a four-year period. The intention is to refine and update, if necessary, the procurement strategy annually to reflect the dynamic and ever-changing landscape within the University, the higher education sector, the public sector and wider economy. The core four-year strategic plan timeframe directly supports the University's corporate strategy and the associated Finance Strategic Plan (2016–19).

Sustainable procurement

Surrey's Procurement Department believe that sustainability needs to be embedded across the supply chain, influencing how we procure goods and services, the types of goods and services we procure, and how we manage their lifecycle. A Sustainable Procurement Plan (PDF) has been developed with the Sustainability Team to action this.

To measure progress, we are using the government’s Flexible Framework (PDF), expanding this framework from five to ten stages to clarify actions and expedite delivery. A number of actions have been completed including, crucially, the creation of a sustainable procurement plan, the selection and delivery of training in sustainable procurement, and the advanced filtering and classification of suppliers.