UK universities and colleges have signed a framework worth up to £9.86 million ($13.33 million) with Oracle to use its controversial Java SE Universal Subscription model, in exchange for a “waiver of historic fees due for any institutions who have used Oracle Java since 2023.”

Jisc, a membership organisation that runs procurement for higher and further education establishments in the UK, said it had signed an agreement to purchase the new subscription licenses after consultation with members.

In a procurement notice, it said institutions that use Oracle Java SE are required to purchase subscriptions. “The agreement includes the waiver of historic fees due for any institutions who have used Oracle Java since 2023,” the notice said.

The Java SE Universal Subscription was introduced in January 2023 to an outcry from licensing experts and analysts. It moved licensing of Java from a per-user basis to a per-employee basis. At the time, Oracle said it was “a simple, low-cost monthly subscription that includes Java SE Licensing and Support for use on Desktops, Servers or Cloud deployments.”

However, licensing advisors said early calculations to help some clients showed that the revamp might increase costs by up to ten times.

Later, analysis from Gartner found the per-employee subscription model to be two to five times more expensive than the legacy model.

“For large organisations, we expect the increase to be two to five times, depending on the number of employees an organisation has,” Nitish Tyagi, principal Gartner analyst, said in July 2024. “Please remember, Oracle defines employees as part-time, full-time, temporary, agents, contractors, as in whosoever supports internal business operations has to be licensed as per the new Java Universal SE Subscription model.”

Since the introduction of the new Oracle Java licensing model, user organisations have been strongly advised to move off Oracle Java and find open source alternatives for their software development and runtime environments.

A survey of Oracle users found that only one in ten was likely to continue to stay with Oracle Java, in part as a result of the licensing changes.

Users continue to be advised to review their use of Oracle Java after an increase in vendor software audits.

In May, Scott Sellers, CEO of Java advisory and services company Azul, said: “We’re definitely seeing an uptick. One of the things that seems to be happening is we’re seeing more presence in more and more countries.”

He added that Oracle is “putting specific Java sales teams in country, and then identifying those companies that appear to be downloading and… then going in and requesting to [do] audits. That recipe appears to be playing out truly globally at this point.”

Eric Guyer, founding partner at Oracle and SAP advisory and consulting firm Remend, said that few of his clients license Oracle Java, as his company recommends users move off it onto open source alternatives.

Jisc were asked why universities and colleges have not moved off Oracle Java and whether the £10 million framework followed an Oracle audit, or a suggestion that Oracle might audit Jisc member organisations.

Caren Milloy, director of licensing, responded with a statement:

“Jisc, working in collaboration with [higher education associations] UCISA, has negotiated an agreement with Oracle Java that provides a tailored offering to UK higher and further education institutions, simplifying licensing and achieving efficiencies for institutions and Oracle. We look forward to sharing more details on this shortly.”