Annual Report Of the Delegates of the University Press 2012/2013 Annual Report of the Delegates of the University Press 2012/13 Bikes line up outside the OUP offices at Great Clarendon Street, Oxford. Around a quarter of Oxford-based staff cycle to work each day in what is an increasingly environmentally friendly workplace. The site also benefits from automatic lighting, power monitoring, solar heating, and a waste management and recycling programme. | 02 | Annual Report of the Delegates of the University Press 2012/13 Contents Foreword by the Vice-Chancellor 04 Report of the Secretary to the Delegates 05 Academic 08 Academic Highlights 14 Education 18 Education Highlights 24 Prizes Highlights 28 Committees 30 Finances 32 Cover image: Students at St Barnabas School, Oxford, browse OUP resources in the school library. The Press produces a plethora of educational resources from textbooks to assessment services for children of all ages in the UK and around the world. See pages 18-27 for further details. | 03 | Annual Report of the Delegates of the University Press 2012/13 During my time as Vice-Chancellor Meanwhile the Oxford Test of English provides we have witnessed an enormous a new assessment service for English language learners based on an innovative online transformation within the publishing platform and endorsed by the University’s industry. I have been constantly Department for Continuing Education. Both impressed with the manner in resources highlight not only the ingenuity and which OUP has responded to these experimentation that lays at the heart of the changes; seizing new opportunities Press’s activities, but also the dedication to quality that underpins them. to disseminate high-quality content in innovative ways, and furthering the This year the Press transferred £50 million to University’s mission across the world. the wider University, which has helped to fund University of Oxford Images/John Cairns vital research, scholarship, and educational activities, including the John Fell Research Students, scholars, and researchers are educational resources with the goal of raising Fund and the Clarendon Scholarships. In accessing information through a variety of new standards in schools across the country. The addition, the transfer to the University’s digital channels, well beyond the printed page. activity which I saw taking place in Brazil is permanent endowment that took place in In response, Oxford’s intellectual output has just one example of the Press’s commitment 2011 continues to generate matching funding been made available in an increasing range of to emerging markets, which include Africa, for undergraduate bursaries. formats, and the take-up of such new services the Middle East, and Asia; helping to bring the For centuries, Oxford University Press has has been hugely encouraging. The number Oxford name and a wide range of high-quality been a key part of the University of Oxford, of online article downloads across the 300 resources closer to millions of students and drawing on the intellectual resources of one of journals that we publish, for example, has now teachers in some of the most rapidly growing the world’s finest universities, and reinforcing reached one billion; online academic products economies in the world today. Oxford’s global outreach. I look forward to receive tens of millions of hits each year, the The Press has at its heart a commitment to another year as Chair of the Delegates of number of OUP titles sold in e-book form excellence across an extraordinary breadth of the Press. more than doubled this year; and more than publishing that can be rivalled by few others, 250,000 English language students have now and I would like to pick out two contrasting taken online Oxford tests. examples that were launched during the past As well as this commitment to new channels, year. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online brings the Press has continued to broaden its Oxford’s prestigious range of original scholarly international reach. Just this year, I visited the editions to audiences through a remarkable Professor Andrew Hamilton OUP offices in Brazil in August and had the digital interface, breathing new life into Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford opportunity to meet with staff developing important texts. Foreword by the Vice-Chancellor Foreword by the Vice-Chancellor | 04 | Annual Report of the Delegates of the University Press 2012/13 This year was one of significant Trading conditions were incredibly tough change in the Press, implemented in some territories. Economic uncertainty affected our sales in the Eurozone, against a backdrop of continuing particularly in Spain, and we also saw economic uncertainty and market disruption in some of our African markets transformation. Ultimately, we had after the announcement of the agreed a successful year and achieved much resolutions with the World Bank and to be proud of—although it was not Serious Fraud Office. In all cases, the Press’s management reacted quickly to address the without its challenges. issues, and our commitment to high-quality publishing and to supporting our customers’ A top priority has been to address the Photo credit/David Fisher requirements meant that we were still able to issues of ethical misconduct that came grow our business at a rate which compares to light in 2011 and which led to us favourably to that of our competitors. In many markets we also witnessed the announcing agreed resolutions with the education sector adopting digital solutions During the year we also made a series UK Serious Fraud Office and World Bank to a much greater degree and at an of important organizational changes. In in July 2012, as highlighted in last year’s accelerating rate. This was particularly so in October 2012, the International Division— Annual Report. Our commitment to the the English language teaching sector, where which had overseen much of OUP’s highest ethical standards is absolute and customers increasingly require assessment education publishing outside the UK since we have devoted substantial effort and services and electronic resources to the 1970s—was dismantled, and its former considerable resources to addressing the complement traditional textbooks. branches were placed into new groupings. past misconduct and to ensuring that we Our businesses in Pakistan, India, Hong can maintain those standards in the future. These trends offer exciting opportunities Kong, and Malaysia were combined into a for the Press and are being embraced Over the past year, the Press’s strategy and new division, Asia Education. throughout the group to strengthen our investments have been directed towards ability to fulfil our mission of disseminating addressing the ongoing transformation quality materials and to improve in our markets worldwide. In the Global educational and academic outcomes for all. Academic division, the decline in print reference sales continued—shifting demand to digital resources to the extent that they now account for half our academic sales. Report of the Secretary to the Delegates Report of the Secretary to the Delegates and Chief Executive | 05 | Annual Report of the Delegates of the University Press 2012/13 Branches in Australia and Africa joined our We are committed to furthering the We made good progress against each of UK schools and children’s publishing units University’s mission of excellence these objectives in 2012/13, in part due to to form Oxford Education. OUP Canada in education, scholarship, and the results of our investment programme— joined our Global Academic division, and research, which we achieve by which I outlined in detail last year—but also OUP Mexico became part of the English publishing worldwide. through publishing innovation and our ability Language Teaching (ELT) division. Later to react quickly to changing market needs. in the year, two publishing units were Other actions included updating and In the academic market, we enhanced our restructured: OUP España implemented re-issuing our Code of Conduct for digital offering with new and updated online a number of changes to refocus product all employees, revising our global products, and strengthened our journals development and promotional activities ethical policies, and launching a new list with several important new acquisitions in response to a declining market; and a whistleblowing service offering a and society partnerships, bringing the new publishing structure was established confidential method for employees Press’s total to more than 300 titles. There in the ELT division to allow us better to to report ethical concerns. was a range of digital innovations in the meet the requirement for more flexible and international schools market, with Oxford customizable products. Despite these internal changes, our long- Educate in India and the updated obook term goals remain the same. We are platform in Australia providing just two These organizational changes are designed committed to furthering the University’s examples of well-received products. to improve the execution of our strategy mission of excellence in education, and increase our ability to create market- scholarship, and research, which we achieve Progress in the schoolbooks market included leading resources and services for the by publishing worldwide. We continue to new publishing for an updated South countries and market sectors that we serve. focus on our goals of developing leadership African curriculum and success in the UK They also afford us much better oversight positions in