Universities have won the copyright licence they wanted at the end of a tribunal believed to have cost almost £2 million.

Sol Picciotto, a member of the Universities UK negotiating team and head of law at Lancaster University, said it was "regrettable that we were only able to obtain a reasonable licence by going to the tribunal" but added that universities and staff had supported the case.

The Copyright Tribunal last week ordered the Copyright Licensing Agency to pay a quarter of UUK's legal costs. UUK's total costs are about £800,000.

The tribunal decided that the CLA's refusal to abandon the CLARCS clearing system for course-pack material was the main issue in the case.

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With an estimated 1.2 million full-time students in higher education, Professor Picciotto said that the £4 per student blanket fee would cost universities about the same as the past £3.25 plus CLARCS fees.

"But the CLA had asked for an extra 65p per full-time student for illustrations," Professor Picciotto said. "So our total costs were actually covered by just one year's savings from not having to pay the additional fee for illustrations.

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"We consider the money well spent and the outcome a great boost to higher education."

The tribunal also ruled that the CLA should have the right to go into universities to inspect the implementation of the licence, a point that UUK had contested at the final hearing.