SCONUL, RLUK, Jisc and our partner organisations have written to publishers Pearson, asking them to take urgent and immediate action to reconsider and reverse their recently - announced price increases to e-textbook titles.

These significant and unbudgeted increases, announced suddenly and without consultation, are unacceptable to UK education institutions and their students.  The letter makes the following points:

• Price increases of this magnitude (500%) will limit student access to content
• Bringing pricing in line with the market rate is unjustified and reflects an imbalance in the marketplace, as outlined in our recently published joint statement signed by UK sector partners
• The price rise imposed with immediate effect represents a significant and unbudgeted increase
• The timing of the price increase is wrong.  As a minimum requirement, we requested that Pearson delay the roll out of price increases, at least until the start of the next academic year 2022-23.

In addition to SCONUL the letter has been signed by:

• Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC)
• BUFDG: British Universities Finance Directors Group
• CILIP: The library and information association 
• Jisc
• National Acquisitions Group (NAG)
• Procurement bodies including Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC)
• Research Libraries UK (RLUK)
• Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL)
• Scottish Higher Education Digital Library (SHEDL)
• The Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum (WHELF)
• #ebooksos

Further information

Read the full letter to Pearson, Higher Education Services (PDF)

Joint statement 6 October 2021 on access to e-book and e-textbook content