A report in Public Sector Travel states that the university sector will likely be caught by Europe’s open public tendering rules notwithstanding the fact that a majority of the sector’s revenues do not come from government funding:
Universities are likely to remain subject to European procurement law and have to submit tenders via OJEU, according to one of the UK’s experts on the subject. Ruth Smith, national head of procurement law at Mills & Reeve told delegates to Engage Universities that this was likely despite public funds now accounting for only a small percentage of funding in the nation’s large research universities. She pointed out that the source of tuition fees funding was not the sole criteria upon the decision as to whether a university was subject to European procurement rules was based.
