Despite the deeply entrenched nature of the current publishing system and the significant challenges of transforming it, universities have a unique opportunity to shape the future of scholarly communication. Awareness of the system's flaws and negative impact is increasing, along with growing political support and momentum for change. As such, this briefing describes the current status of academic publishing, highlighting the main factors shaping the system and the key challenges faced by the academic community. It also identifies opportunities for universities to play a leading role in shaping the future of scholarly communication. For a scholarly communication system that reflects academic values (e.g. integrity, trust, freedom, equity, quality and diversity) and the broader interests of society, universities are encouraged to reflect on six key considerations, ranging from a critical evaluation of the expenditure on commercial research publishing and information products and services, strengthening institutional publishing services and infrastructures, cooperation and engagement with stakeholders and researchers, and the need to accelerate the reform of research assessment.