Until recently it was a question of having to cut back 26 million guilder annually, resulting from a loan necessary to finance the real estate plan. However, last week the CvB made clear that, after discussing this with the faculty deans and institute directors, the 'maximum variant' had been chosen: 35 million annually. The amount, necessary to strengthen the primary processes (education and research) and realising the ambitious real estate plan (the interest mentioned before), will largely have to be found by reducing overhead.
On behalf of the executive board, Hans Roosendaal announced in the University Council meeting last week that the 'distorted balance between scientific and supporting personnel' at the UT will have to be adjusted. Or: compared to other universities the UT has too many supporting personnel with respect to the number of scientists.
Before the 1 December a five-man steering-group will map which secondary processes are the most desirable to support education and research. In a series of meetings an inventory will be made of the activity groups of the existing services, and they will be judged and valued. The selected activities will then be regrouped and new services will be forged, that should be 'positioned and administered unambiguously', according to Roosendaal.
The preparations for the sessions with the steering group have already started. The steering group consists of a member of the board, a dean, a scientific director, the head of the personnel department and a student-member from the University Council.
The pressure on the economy drive is increased by the budget deficit that threatens to develop on the institutional budget 2002. 'The outlook is clearly sombre at this moment', Hugo Barbas, responsible for the finances in the CvB, told the University Council. A gap of 30 million exists, in part because of difference between the budgetary wishes of the faculties and services and the available budget.
