The reasons for the budget cutting tasks next year are lower incomes, explains Finance Director Dennis van Zijl. 'You budget on the basis of, among other things, student intake forecasts. Last autumn's influx was lower than expected. If you extend those figures, it is to be expected that by 2025 we will receive a lower government contribution and fewer tuition fees.'
25 million euros
The current financial picture is as follows: the UT wants to end up with a deficit of no more than 8 million euros this year. Without financial measures, that deficit would rise to 20 million euros. That is why, when the budget was drawn up at the end of last year, it was agreed to cut 12 million euros in 2024. Among other things, through the previously announced measures in the field of vacancies and the well-known cancellation of the work lunches and the recently presented 'building blocks'.
In 2025, the UT only wants to record a deficit of a maximum of 4 million euros. A lower government contribution and lower tuition fees would mean a financial setback of around 9 million euros. Including the additional 4 million euros that the UT wants to cut compared to 2024, this will lead to a cost-cutting task of 13 million euros. In total, the UT will have to cut costs of 25 million euros in two years' time.
'Rekensom klopt'
'That will become even more so if we don't do anything,' says Van Zijl. 'Our goal is to get 25 million euros from somewhere. We can take some hits thanks to our reserves, so it's not like we should panic. But we have to be aware of the urgency and the challenge', he emphasises. 'And above all, we have to make sure that we stay in line financially: to not spend more than comes in.'
According to Van Zijl, with the current austerity measures, 'the calculations' are correct to arrive at the expected deficits of minus 8 and 4 million. This especially concerns staffing, as personnel costs account for about 70 percent of total UT expenditure. 'With targeted contraction, we are going to manage in terms of numbers,' says the Director of Finance. 'But the situation on paper is different from the situation in practice. If we are talking about natural staff turnover, the situation will already vary greatly from one department to another, for example. The considerations that are made at the decentralised level will play an important role.'
10 percent fewer support staff
What are the concrete plans to reduce personnel costs? 'In any case, a plan for forced redundancies is not on the table at the moment', Van Zijl responds when asked. For academic staff, the UT does not have any concrete targets for staff reductions – apart from having academic staff 'move along' on the basis of student numbers. But there are concrete personnel plans for the support staff. Over the next four years, the support workforce must shrink by 10 percent, Van Zijl says. That's about 150 FTEs in total.
These are numbers that can easily be achieved through natural attrition, according to Van Zijl. 'Every year, that turnover is around 3 to 4 percent, so 10 percent can fairly easily be achieved in four years' time. It remains important that we carefully consider which positions will or will not be refilled. The aim is to achieve a 'healthy ratio' between the support staff and the academic staff, says Van Zijl. 'At the UT, we have a relatively large number of support staff compared to other universities (43 percent of the total staff according to the dashboards of HR system AFAS, ed.). A healthier ratio would be 40 or 38 percent support staff.’
The figures in the Spring Memorandum are still provisional. These are estimates that ultimately form the basis for drawing up the university's budget. The long-term financial plan will eventually be submitted to the University Council for approval in June.
