With the University Council’s consent, an important step has been taken in setting the University of Twente's budget for 2024. The UC met on Wednesday, 20 December, to discuss the advice to the Executive Board. In the meeting, the Executive Board set out how it will approach the financial challenges in the coming year. Achieving the financial targets included in the budget in a responsible manner is realistic and achievable, but will require a considerable effort from everyone within UT. A day after the decision of the University Council, the UT's Supervisory Board gave their approval.
Quality of education comes first
In the coming period, the University of Twente will further elaborate on the choices and measures arising from the budget. You can read more about the main priorities in our earlier news item. The key principles as formulated in the vision document Shaping2030 remain leading.
Maintaining the quality of education is a high priority. In national comparisons such as the National Student Survey, the UT has consistently scored among the best universities in recent years. UT wants to maintain and continue to strengthen this leading position in student appreciation. This calls for priority in staff deployment, but also the deployment of resources to sustain educational facilities in the broadest sense.
Future-proof choices
The follow-up will also explicitly consider the future-proofing of choices: are they in line with our vision? Do they contribute to our long-term goals and build on what we have achieved in the past in a proper manner?
We are also working on the resilience of our organisation, to be able to respond adequately to changes in the future. The current financial situation and the outlook for the future, for example, due to lower student intake, demand agility and flexibility. Together with the departments and faculties, we will give this issue a lot of attention in the coming period.
Active steering and monitoring
Achieving the intentions as formulated in the budget requires active steering at all levels. Monitoring the progress will play an important role at both university and faculty and service department level, so that the Executive Board, faculty boards and service directors can make timely adjustments when the situation demands it. The participatory bodies, such as the University Council and the faculty and service boards, will each be able to discuss this in their domain. In this way, we jointly ensure that we set a realistic course that leads to what we aim for and limit unwanted side effects.
Participation
In recent weeks, the UC has been in contact with the Executive Board frequently to discuss this matter. In its advice, the University Council draws attention to a number of issues. For instance, on the feasibility of the financial objectives without compromising the quality of education. But the effect on staff was also a point of attention. It is not yet apparent everywhere what choices will be made and what the impact will be. The UC also calls for attention to communication, both in underlining the urgency towards the organisation and in making the situation and the choices that are being made transparent.
The service and faculty councils, which provided critical advice on the budgets of the individual units in their own units, mainly gave similar signals. There is a broad understanding that the financial task requires adjustment, but they call attention to the execution of the plans and the effects of specific measures within their units. Faculty Boards and the directors of the service departments will take those into account in the follow-up phase.
The Executive Board welcomes the commitment and constructive attitude of the University Council. The EB recognises the points of attention brought in by the UR. Achieving the financial targets in a responsible manner is feasible, but will require considerable effort from everyone. The Executive Board will monitor this closely and will take action when necessary.
Communication
In the coming period, we will keep the UT community informed about the financial challenges, the choices we are making and the progress we are making on them. We will do this through frequent news updates on the service portal, but we have also set up a separate section where all the information is bundled. This will be supplemented further in the coming period.
Decision-making process
Consent of the University Council is an important step in the process of adopting the budget. The Supervisory Board must also approve. The supervisory body did so at its meeting on Thursday, 21 December. The final step in the decision-making process is obtaining approval from the Supervisory Board.
