Low cost access to the Oxford English Dictionary

The crown jewel of reference works – the Oxford English Dictionary Online – will be available at a significantly reduced cost to all further and higher education institutions in the UK and Ireland.

From 1 June 2000, students and staff at subscribing institutions will benefit from unlimited access to "the internet's biggest, most prestigious reference work" (The Guardian).

This opportunity comes as a result of a special 3-year pricing arrangement negotiated by the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) of the further and high education funding councils and Oxford University Press (OUP). Special funding from the Further Education Funding bodies via the Jisc, together with special pricing from OUP, means that a network licence to OED Online will cost colleges just £85 including VAT in the first year of the 3-year deal (compared with a standard list price of £600 plus VAT).

This is the first time that further education colleges have been able to take advantage of a Jisc-negotiated deal. This is all part of the strategy to enable students and staff in colleges to participate fully in the government's lifelong learning agenda by enabling access to high quality learning resources via the Internet.

The Oxford English Dictionary Online will join other high quality resources delivered via the Internet through the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER).