With the current budget cuts – which the UT started with last year – the university is not going to make it. That is the conclusion of the Spring Memorandum, the UT's long-term financial plan. Causes mentioned are declining student numbers, increased costs and research funding that is under pressure.
Fewer students
This is reflected in the figures. The UT calculates a decline in student numbers, to roughly between 10 thousand and 11 thousand students. By way of comparison: last year's Spring Memorandum still took into account 13.5 thousand students in 2027, of which there are still 10,299 left with current calculations.
This will result in substantial additional cutbacks, on top of the financial measures already taken by the UT. According to the long-term budget drawn up at the end of 2023, the UT assumed a cost-cutting task of around 16 to 17 million euros in 2025 and 2026, to around 11 million euros in 2028. In this new situation, the austerity task is considerably tougher, from some 30 million euros in 2025 to almost 36 million euros in 2028 and 2029.
The UT's austerity task according to the Spring Memorandum. Amounts in millions of €'s.
In the medium term, the UT is looking for measures within the twenty previously proposed 'building blocks'. For example, the university wants to organise its education differently, increase the staff-student ratio from 1:13 to 1:20, increase student intake, bring in more research funding and employ fewer support staff.
Cutting Activism Grants
Measures must also be taken in the short term – this year, it says. The options that are on the table: less external hiring, spending fewer scholarships, scaling down certain minors and honours education and 'reducing the elements of FOBOS that are further removed from our core activities in education, in particular, the activism grants'.
Although the University Council will discuss the financial plans tomorrow, it is already clear that, for example, scaling back the activism grants is a sore point for the participation council. Especially in view of the long-term study fine that the new cabinet wants to introduce and the waning activism at the UT, the University Council fears serious negative consequences.
University Council wants organisational change
But that doesn't completely cover the content of the University Council's message. It wants the Executive Board to take more control and take action. That is why the University Council is pushing for a formal organisational change, specifically one of the second category. That is: 'An organisational change that affects the organisation and/or the working methods of the unit(s) in question or UT as a whole and without far-reaching legal consequences'. In other words: no reorganisation or compulsory redundancies, but to reshuffle the organisation. However, a plan will have to be put on the table for this.
The University Council does not intend to approve the Spring Memorandum just like that. The council believes that this organisational change must be activated. In addition, the financial plans need to be further elaborated in order to get a clearer picture of the effects of the aforementioned measures and how much the UT will benefit financially, is the message.
