"Universities, like private sector businesses, are under immense pressure to manage costs, boost efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint," said Paul Squires, print manager for MMU.

To help it make the switch to on demand printing the university has signed a three year contract with Canon to upgrade its in-house print centre.

Included in the deal are an imagePRESS C7000VP, two iR150 HV black-and-white machines, two light production CLC5151 colour devices, four iR7105 machines as well as eight networked document scanning devices.

By printing personalised material on-demand, rather than taking the more traditional ‘pile ‘em high’ approach, MMU believes it can slash costs and cut down significantly on waste, which in turn will help it improve its rating in the University Green League table, which measures the environmental standards of colleges and universities.

With the new equipment, the university will be able to manage all high-volume black-and-white and colour printing in-house, including production of bespoke prospectuses for its students.