The university installed the Kodak NexPress 2100 for its marketing and communications department. The machine has a list price of £250,000, though the exact investment by the university is unknown.

Kodak UK marketing manager Pat Holloway told printweek.com that universities were an important market segment for Kodak, but they were customers like any other.

"Universities are a big market for in-plant [facilities] and a big market for personalisation, but the selling process is no different than if you are selling for any other market sector," Holloway says. "It's about understanding the customer's needs – do they need a machine for straightforward short-run print or do they need personalisation?"

The University of Surrey previously outsourced much of its printing and expects to save money by bringing it in-house. The previous suppliers were not disclosed, but Holloway said any cost savings were likely to be due to reduced wastage as the university would now only print what is needed.

Heather Styche-Patel, direct of marketing and communications at the University of Surrey, said it was very important to be able to print personalised materials as this positively and directly affected enquiry numbers.

"For example, if an international student orders a prospectus, we would ensure that their prospectus has lots of images from our neighbourhood areas," she said. "A mature student would, however, automatically get information of most relevance to them. It is essential for us to carry on with personalisation because we know it works."

The NexPress 2100, which delivers 2,100 A3 sheets per hour (70 A4 pages per minute), is billed as a good fit for small to mid-sized printers, in-plant operations, educational facilities, digital service bureaux and small commercial printers that wish to enter the digital colour print market affordably.

The NexPress 2100 is available in a four- or five-colour configuration. The five-colour configuration offers in-line coating, glossing, or a fifth colour to expand the printing gamut and reproduce spot colours.