Join us for a discussion of the crisis in higher education and the future of Diamond open access. A drinks reception will follow the in-person event.

Event description

As we approach a new academic year, parts of the UK higher education sector are gripped by an escalating, albeit unevenly distributed, financial crisis. This is visible in the dozens of redundancy schemes operating at UK universities, and with those the near-total destruction of some arts, humanities and social science departments, along with many other funding cuts. As ever more universities seem to be governed by cutthroat market logics, it seems reasonable to assume that an inevitable casualty will be their wider civic responsibilities, even with funders and mandates expecting academic engagement and impact beyond the academy.

The growth of open access over the past decade has led to high volumes of research publications being made accessible to diverse publics without the need for expensive subscriptions. University libraries have helped to support this rapid expansion of open access, and many are now reconfiguring their priorities, including potentially significant shifts away from funding subscription agreements, towards funding so-called ‘Diamond’ open access programmes. Such programmes allow universities to allocate funding towards types of publishing which collectively fund open access scholarship, rather than tying funding directly from individual institutions to specific publications.

The event explores the tension between the understandable pessimism generated by the current crisis, and the sense, among many open advocates, that there are grounds for optimism. It brings together a group of speakers, all with extensive expertise and experience in directly engaging with these issues, including in both UK and US contexts, to collaboratively explore answers to questions such as:

• What lessons do emerging changes in library funding decisions hold for higher education more widely?
• Is it unrealistic to expect an expansion of Diamond open access models given the funding crisis in higher education?
• Could it be that the current crisis makes it even more necessary to clearly and confidently argue for the benefits of Diamond open access?
• How can libraries be supported as they reconfigure their priorities and budgets towards Diamond open access?
• What can the UK learn from similar debates in other national contexts?

Each speaker will provide a short presentation, before discussion opens up to the panel. This will be followed by questions from the audience. All are welcome whether in-person or online and there will be opportunity for all to participate in audience Q&A. A drinks reception will follow the in-person event, from 6.30pm. The event is supported by LSE Library, LSE Press and Copim.

The British Library of Political and Economic Science (@LSELibrary) was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world class collections, including the Women's Library and Hall-Carpenter Archives.