Next week and the week after, UT's Executive Board will speak again with the University Council (UC) about the Spring Memorandum, the financial framework for 2025 and beyond. In the last regular meeting on Wednesday, June 19, the UC said it wanted more insight into the policy intentions for the coming year and the effects of the measures we are already putting in place.
Substantial task
The Spring Memorandum 2025-2029 contains a hefty financial task for UT. Finance director Dennis van Zijl already gave an insight into this in a recent interview with U-Today. On top of the cuts for the current year, another 13 million euros in savings will have to be found for next year. The development of student numbers and the national contribution we receive play an important role in this: we will receive EUR 9.4 million less as a result.
Way forward
Last year, we signalled that we need to take additional steps to remain financially healthy. We have set out various actions to this end and are continuing to work on making our organisation structurally and sustainably healthy.
We know that this is a complex process that will only happen with everyone's help. Adapting to the new financial reality takes effort, but in these times, it will have to be done on the basis of a clear course to prevent worse. We had given ourselves extra time in this by budgeting a 2 per cent deficit for 2024. And in 2025, we are allowed another 1 per cent. That gives us space to properly deploy further changes. This is space we really need, because even now, we must use time wisely.
How complicated that is, the progress over 2024 shows. In the most recent management report, covering the period up to and including April, we see that we are struggling to meet the budget in several places. That is where extra effort is needed. We are putting this in motion, in close consultation between EB, faculties and services.
Additional savings
With the required additional savings for 2025, further measures are needed UT-wide and we will determine together which choices are effective and fit in with where we want and need to go as an organisation. In the coming period, the strategic choices will be discussed in the Strategic Board and the EB-Deans meetings.
Earlier, we informed you about strategic choices already made, such as halving the accommodation budget (LTSH) unit targets, limiting the number of vacancies in support staff and reducing hiring. And also about the building blocks; some 20 interventions that should help us stay financially healthy in a good way.
To see where we should improve, we compared our figures with other universities. A number of insights came out of this that we are working on.
Obviously, maintaining and increasing the intake of new students is very important.
We also need to move towards more efficient teaching. Compared to other universities, we have relatively many staff compared to the number of students. Our quality of education is high, something that also consistently emerges in student appreciation in the National Student Survey. By organising teaching differently, we can maintain the quality and bring the employee-student ratio more in line with other universities. This is a big task that will be worked hard on in the coming period, for instance, with the UC-E (University Committee on Education) and the programme directors. We aim to provide more insight into what this will mean soon.
And, with regard to income from second and third flow funding, we see that other universities do better. Also, our share of support staff is relatively high and we will have to find a better balance in this.
Follow-up process
The financial impact of the above is currently being mapped out to determine what further measures and cutbacks are needed to get back on track. This is a subject we are also discussing further with the UC.
In times of financial tightness, the terms reorganisation and organisational change often come up. We understand that. Here, we are clear: there is a chance that, as the plans are further developed, it will appear that we can only remain financially healthy through such intervention. This is something we exchange thoughts with each other openly and transparently in line with the UT organisational change procedure. We will also discuss this further with the UC.
Once there is also approval from the UC - the Supervisory Board already gave their green light - the faculties and departments can start working on their budgets for 2025 and beyond within the set frameworks. As the Executive Board, we are confident that together, in good cooperation and prompt implementation of the austerity measures, we will get back on track.
