Copyright collecting societies, such as the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), which will be considered in the thesis, are agencies which act on behalf of copyright owners, negotiate licenses and distribute royalties to them. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) include institutions such as colleges and vocational institutions which award academic degrees including diplomas. The present thesis will focus solely on the university sector of HEIs in the UK.  HEIs are both creators and users of copyright works. Therefore a consideration of such an institution permits an analysis of both authors and users of copyright and hence, their relationship with copyright collecting societies. The thesis attempts to answer the following questions: are academic authors appropriately remunerated through the system of collecting societies; are collecting societies the correct medium to negotiate licences and distribute royalties on behalf of copyright owners; and are copyright collecting societies rapidly moving along the information age towards an imminent death? The answers stem from the notion that the ‘incentive’ for authors to write can be both economical and personal, the latter being especially true and equally important in the case of the academic author who seeks reputation, recognition and remuneration over and above financial remuneration. This thesis explores the concept of ‘remuneration’ from the point of view of the CLA and the academic author. The thesis establishes that the academic author is not fairly remunerated through the system of collective licensing and therefore considers solutions and recommendations for the future. In this context, the thesis concludes that since the present system of remuneration through the system of collective licensing does not operate as established by the case study in to the CLA, a support system based on the Higher Education Resources on Demand (HERON) model may be the way forward for the academic author.