Cambridge University Press is an integral part of the University of Cambridge and shares the university's objectives to advance knowledge, education, learning, and research. CUP’s list is comprised of 50,000 peer-reviewed academic research and professional-development titles, and also publishes 300 research journals and is active in school-level education, English language teaching and bible publishing. The publisher is divided into three main groups: Academic, Cambridge English, and Education, with more than 100 offices around the world.

Since 1698, CUP has been governed by ‘Syndics’ (originally known as the 'Curators'), a group of 18 senior academics from the University of Cambridge who represent a wide variety of subjects.

CUP was founded in 1534 by Henry VIII, and is both the oldest publishing house in the world and the oldest university press. CUP has also held the Royal Letters Patent as the Queen’s Printer since 1990.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

For the fiscal year ending on April 30, 2015, revenues at Cambridge University Press increased to 269 million GBP compared to 262 million GBP in fiscal 2014. Underlying sales growth on a constant currency basis was 5%, reflecting significant expansion in Education offset by lower increases in Academic. The operating surplus before tax was 7 million GBP, though a sharp decline in South African sales impacted the comparison.

According to CEO Peter Phillips, "the market for academic journals was affected by the collapse of SWETS, one of the largest subscription agents. Sales of our academic books grew around 
the world, particularly in digital formats. One of the most venerable parts of our output, Bibles, has had a particularly strong year, reflecting amongst other things, the success of the new in-house sales team."

Internal Organization

Partnerships

CUP announced a content partnership with Edmodo, the world’s largest social learning platform used by 50 million teachers, students and parents.

International

CUP generates nearly 90% of its sales outside the UK.

Cambridge English continued to grow in markets around the globe, with particular success in China, Southeast Asia, Spain and Brazil, and an increasing number of large global and regional customers. CUP’s publishing business in Spain continued to grow. The press piloted Cambridge English Adept, a richly adaptive personalized learning tool 
for English grammar, in Mexico and Turkey. Cambridge Elevate, a new e-book
 and assessment platform, underpinned the growth of CUP in the UK and India, as well as the global market for international testing materials.

In contrast, there was a sharp decline in government orders from South Africa.

Digital

The e-book platform Cambridge Learn was launched in India in 2015. The platform is a teacher support tool, and it distributed the first wave of content from Cambridge Elevate.

The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary is now available as an app through Amazon’s Underground. Mila Rendle, head of consumer at Cambridge University Press, said, “In the context of education and learning, being able to reach a wide audience with free content is an exciting development and one that fits our purpose of furthering the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research.”

Bestsellers

In India, Click Start sold an additional 535.000 copies.

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