While other universities are announcing their plans to reduce their spending (Leiden and Utrecht put Humanities on the chopping block), VU Amsterdam hasn’t announced any plans. Last summer it became known that the Earth Sciences programme has to cut back in a major way, but that was separate from the university-wide assignment of cutting the budget by 60 million.
Executive board member Marcel Nollen revealed during a consultative meeting with the staff council last week that a social plan will be needed for at least five out of eighteen entities – faculties and services – at VU Amsterdam. That means there will be forced layoffs there. He didn’t say which entities. VU Amsterdam wants the workforce to shrink as naturally as possible, for instance by not rehiring after retirements, voluntary departures or expirations of temporary contracts. But for five entities that is not sufficient, Nollen stated.
He also said it entails an “intelligent social plan” adapted to the entities that require one, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all solution.
No taboos
Aside from that, VU Amsterdam is still in the inventory phase and is mostly looking into what costs to reduce. According to Nollen “There are no taboos.” As examples he mentioned the removal of electives and minors, replacing small seminars with massive lectures, fusing classes and testing less.
“That does something to the quality of education”, he admitted. “They are painful choices either way, things we find important, but that are simply not possible anymore. “Testing is very labour-intensive and therefore very expensive.”
Removing the peel
Interestingly, student wellbeing was also discussed for the first time. VU Amsterdam has a lawful duty of care and has to provide things such as student psychologists and for instance the Wellbeing Point to offer help to students in need. “But we do have to check how far that duty goes and what exactly we can keep up and running”, said Nollen.
He requested the staff council to work with the executive board ”side by side and hand in hand” in order to “maintain this beautiful university as much as possible”.
Of course the staff council wouldn’t decline such a request, but it didn’t seem willing to sacrifice various crown jewels without pushback. Several members suggested alternatives and made critical comments. They pointed out that not hiring new staff would only increase the workload for those who remain and that they don’t endorse viewing temporary workers as “a peel that has to be removed.”
Singular expense
Someone suggested a shortening of the academic year as a budget cut measure and someone else warned for the “waterbed effect”: budget cuts at one department can lead to increased financial expenses at another department. One staff council member also wondered whether the fusion of certain services were considered, as well as the abolition of an apparently unnecessary service that he did not name.
Someone else remarked that firing personnel is expensive. “But that is a singular expense”, replied Nollen, “in order to structurally cut costs.”
The budget cuts will be incredibly intrusive. If study programmes have to stop, that is very harsh for students who just started. Nollen reassured the council that the duty of care of VU Amsterdam also includes that everyone gets the chance to get their degree.
Bleeders
It may also be a bit much for a programme to offer seven different specialisations, he mused. He distinguished between programmes that attract a lot of students, such as the bachelor for Dutch Creative Writing and the so called ‘bleeders’, which only cost money and should be abolished. “Obviously in accordance with the staff council”, claimed Nollen.
The 60 million of budget cuts are just the first round, by the way. The enormous cuts that the government wants to impose on universities are not even included. Because of this, the total budget cuts could even go up to 120 million euros according to Nollen. He and the other executive board members called upon the entire VU community to join the protest against the budget cuts on November 14 in Utrecht. The board will be there, but they say VU Amsterdam won’t be bussing students and employees over to Utrecht.
“These are dark times”, sighed rector Jeroen Geurts.