The Guildford-based university is using the new press to print a range of on-demand university collateral, such as prospectuses, brochures and open day materials.

According to Gary Ive, design and print operations manager at the university, one major benefit of the purchase has been the ability to personalise text and images.

It has already fully personalised 21,000 undergraduate prospectuses and 4,000 postgraduate pieces that are specified to what courses and subjects the potential student is interested in studying.

"It's a big investment for any educational department and we've got a good niche here. Digital print allows us to work in different ways and using Dimensional Inks is one way to do that," said Ive.

Dimensional Ink printing is carried out by loading clear dry ink into the Nexpress's fifth imaging unit, which creates a clear raised layer on the page.

The tactile effect has been used to add variable height to the university crest on degree certificates and open day materials, which are all now printed in-house.

Ive said a job that previously cost the university £40,000 to outsource is now being carried out for an eighth of the cost in-house.

"We printed 2.4m impressions in September – that's the most we've ever done in a single month in the 10 years I've been here," he said.

The Guildford university's new digital colour press is an upgrade of the Nexpress 2100 model installed early last year at the 16-staff print facility.

It complements a Ricoh Pro C900s production press, which was bedded-in this April, as well as a brace of single-colour litho machines.