Consortia purchasing for higher education in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia

This chapter provides an overview of the findings of a study of purchasing consortia, focused on two areas of interest within higher education: first, what is the real value of consortia purchasing, and second, can a framework be identified to optimize cooperative purchasing initiatives? The study covered consortia from four nations – Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The combined data are reported, following a brief description of the Canadian public and higher education sectors to provide some context.