The 22 employees received the news today from Dean Freek van der Meer or Director of Operations David Korringa. Unlike the Faculty of TNW, which carried out a reorganisation earlier this year by dissolving several research departments entirely, ITC has chosen a different approach.
The faculty is making other structural choices, with direct consequences for the positions of fourteen academic and eight support staff members. ‘For academic staff, we are looking at how their work aligns with the Dutch government’s Official Development Assistance policy and how it connects with our own mission, vision, and key research themes,’ explains Dean Freek van der Meer. ‘For support staff, we are reviewing the level of service we can provide with reduced financial means, and how to deploy staff more efficiently.’
According to the dean, ITC deliberately decided against partial redundancies — cutting a fraction of working hours — and individual performance did not play any role in the reorganisation process. ‘Those affected will receive individual guidance towards a new position,’ says Van der Meer. ‘We will do everything we can to help colleagues find a new role, preferably within the university. For that, we need the support of colleagues in other faculties and institutes. After all, we are one UT community.’
New organisational structure
The reorganisation also includes a major structural overhaul. ITC will move from six research departments to four, each matching one of the faculty’s core themes: Disaster Resilience, GeoAI, Resource Security, and Urban Futures.
The number of support departments will be reduced significantly: currently there are eighteen, but these will be consolidated into four units — human resources, finance, business development support, and education and research. The new structure, both academic and administrative, must be in place by 1 April 2026.
Budget cuts following Prinsjesdag
The reason behind the reorganisation goes back to last year’s Prinsjesdag, when the Dutch government announced cuts to development cooperation funding. This resulted in a 14.5 per cent reduction to ITC’s budget. ‘That budget is fixed for the next five years,’ says Van der Meer. ‘In the long term, we need to save two million euros annually on our fixed costs. Knowing that around 80 per cent of those costs are personnel-related, there was no other option.’
‘A dark time’
From 2027, the faculty aims to break even financially, and by 2028, ITC hopes to be back in the black. The goal of the reorganisation, says the dean, is to make the faculty financially and academically future-proof. ‘If we make these changes — however difficult, painful, and far-reaching — we can hopefully move forward as a financially healthy organisation with a sharper focus. But first, we must get through this dark time together. That is the harsh and bitter reality.’
