Procurement at UCA

We offer a truly global perspective in creative education. 17.2 per cent of our student population comes from outside the UK – our diverse international community welcomes students from 91 nations from across the world.

At all of our four campuses and you’ll find a thriving hub of collaborative creativity, each with plenty to offer as a place to live, study and enjoy for our students. Our campus communities are the lifeblood of UCA. Each one reflects a unique blend of specialist creative courses – step through the doors and you’ll find an impressive array of high-spec equipment and resources at your fingertips.

The University buys goods, services and works to an annual value of approximately £20 million. Wherever appropriate the University achieves value for money through the introduction of competition.

Where the total contract value is estimated to be under £50,000 including VAT, competition will be achieved by obtaining quotations from a selection of companies.

Where a contract value for goods, services or works is likely to exceed EU Procurement Thresholds then the contract will be tendered in accordance with the EU Procurement Directives.

The University is also a member of the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium which has responsibility for setting up framework contracts for some of the most commonly purchased goods and services across the Higher Education Sector.  In addition to this the University may also utilise the framework agreements set up by the Government Procurement Service.

As previously stated the University aims to achieve Value for Money from all its procurement activity. In this case Value for Money means considering the optimum combination of quality and whole life cost to meet the needs of the end user.

UCA will actively advertise tenders in accordance with the EU procurement directive and UK public procurement regulations. 

Tenders under the Official Journal of European Union (OJEU) thresholds will be advertised via Contracts Finder

Tenders above the threshold will be  advertised via Contracts Finder and on our tendering portal which is our tool for publishing OJEU tenders.

Expressions of interest in providing any other services to UCA should be emailed to procurement@uca.ac.uk

View the UCA tendering portal user guide (PDF)