Hanze University must make cuts of 15 million euros. According to chairman of the board Dick Pouwels, there will be no forced redundancies.
An important cause is that the compensation that universities and colleges receive from the government for students is decreasing. “We get less money per student. This is because the number of students will decrease, just like at other colleges and universities. That is a demographic development.”
Fewer Dutch students
In other words, fewer students are joining, especially because the number of 17 – 25 year old Dutch students will decrease in the longer term. The decline is gradual. Between 2008 and 2021, the number of HBO students nationally increased to 490,000. It is expected that in six years there will still be approximately 435,000. Pouwels: “We now have more than 30,000 students. We think that this number will drop to 27,000 in about six years.”
Fewer students means less money from the Ministry of Education, while this amount had grown in recent years because more and more students were joining. An educational institution will receive 9,700 euros for a higher professional education student in 2024. A year later, another hundred euros will be added, but after that the government contribution will decrease.
In addition, the salaries of 4,000 Hanze University employees will increase by an average of ten percent this year due to price increases. Pouwels: “People in a lower salary scale receive more increases than employees with a higher salary.”
Cutbacks not at the expense of education
“We are talking about a cut of a total of 15 million.” About half will be paid from the reserves. “Then an amount of 7.5 million remains. Given our budget of 350 million euros, this is doable. We can amply cover this with colleagues who are retiring. We will also investigate how and where we can work more efficiently, such as when creating schedules.”
According to the chairman of the board, forced redundancies are not an issue and there will continue to be sufficient teachers in the classroom. The cuts will therefore not be at the expense of education and research. “Ten percent of our activities still consist of research. Our ambition is to double this over a period of ten years.”
Hanze wants to do more research
He emphasizes that this is not at the expense of education. “It is actually a supplement. The idea is that education and research increasingly reinforce each other, with students, teachers, researchers and the professional field, such as companies and governments, working together and conducting research into solutions to current issues. An example is a research project in the field of climate change. The climate is changing. Drought and heat cause heat stress and large amounts of precipitation cause flooding. Municipalities and water boards have the task of organizing villages and towns accordingly. But how do you ensure a climate-proof design? What are the opportunities and what are the risks? Research into this is being done by students, researchers, lecturers and – in this case – municipalities.”