UvA Budget 2025: red figures everywhere
This week the draft budget was released and it is quite a shock: almost all faculties and services will end up in the red figures. “Where short- or long-term savings are possible, it is imperative to realize them.”
Without exception, the five major UvA faculties will all end up in the red figures next year, according to the preliminary UvA budget for next year. The Faculty of Science (FNWI) takes the crown with a budgeted deficit ban 8.7 million, an amount that, moreover, will further increase in the following year. The Faculty of Humanities is also facing a substantial deficit: 5.5 million. Law (FdR), Economics & Business Administration (FEB) and Society & Behaviour (FMG) have smaller deficits, but are also in the red.
The FEB is still doing best with a budgeted deficit of “only” half a million on a total budget of over 107 million. Dean Beetsma informed his staff this week that a lot has already been done in the past year to get the faculty in line after earlier also threatening substantial deficits. “There has already been a critical look at spending by the management teams of the schools, the executive programs, the Education Service Centre (ESC), and the executive board in the past year.” Nevertheless, the deficits will increase again from 2026 to 6.6 million in 2028. “We have to start looking more and more at what is essential and what is desirable to achieve our goals.”
18.5 million
The deficits at the FNWI are also substantial and they will increase further in 2026 as well. The number of students has been declining for two years, but the deficit is mainly caused by the expensive building programs that have been and are being realized for the science faculty at Science Park: the real estate costs are budgeted at 17 million.
The Faculty of Humanities is losing students, with a concomitant drop in income. Simultaneously, costs increase. And so you end up with a deficit of 5.5 million, an amount that incidentally decreases in the following years. The FMG is also writing red figures (2.8 million), but according to head of operations Michel Telkamp these will not have any consequences before 2025, he said in an information session for the staff. “After that, we first need to know what the cuts mean for us and what is expected of us. Towards the 2026 budget, we will know better what is needed and what measures we will take. A vacancy freeze could be part of that.”
All faculties combined come out at a budgeted deficit of 18.5 million for 2025, double the budgeted deficit for this year. Faculties may use reserves to cushion those deficits, but even then, a total deficit of 5.8 million is budgeted for next year. Until 2028, faculties will deploy 21 million from their reserves. In the years 2027 and 2028, an additional 20 million can be deployed from reserves.
100 million in 2028
Under the plans of Dick Schoof and his cabinet, cuts in higher education will total 1 billion in the coming years. The UvA said earlier, through board member Jan Lintsen, that this target alone could cost the UvA 100 million a year in the long run. The UvA's mathematicians now arrive at an austerity amount of 29 million in 2025, rising to 64 million in 2028, to which another 36 million will be added due to a decline in the number of (international) students. And so you arrive at 100 million.
In 2028, the reduction in the number of internationals alone will cost the UvA €20.5 million. Broadly speaking, most of the government cuts will only have an effect from 2026 onwards, but the starter and incentive grants - €36.2 million UvA-wide - will already expire next financial year. All faculties and departments will be asked to draw up new multi-year plans in the coming period.
Housing
According to the UvA, the effects of the Internalization in Balance Act, namely a decline in the number of internationals, will have “a major impact” on the need for space within the UvA: the fewer students, the less need for square meters. The UvA speaks of “a stagnating space requirement”. For less capital-rich faculties, the decline in student numbers could have the advantage of allowing them to dispose of square meters, as the square meter price will gradually go from 273 euros per square meter now, to 284 euros next year, rising to 306 euros in 2028.
For local residents of the REC - invariably angered by the UvA’s building frenzy - there is good news: the campus will not be further expanded and the temporary REC-V building, the former stamp park, will not be converted into a permanent building. Who knows, it might disappear again one day; it was put there for ten years.
‘A difficult time’
Erik Boels, director of finance at the UvA, said in a podcast he was “depressed” about the financial outlook for the coming years. “We are entering a difficult time,” he says. Whether jobs will disappear, he says, is “too soon” . However, the pressure on research is going to “increase”. “All research institutes will have to make choices in the coming period about what they can and do not want to do anymore. The workload is definitely going to go up.”
Very stupid
Incidentally, it is still unclear whether the government cuts will go ahead, because in the Senate, both on the left and on the right, there is a lot of criticism of Education & Science Minister Bruins’s plans, as emerged this week during the General Political Considerations in the Senate. D66 senator Paul van Meenen this week called the cuts “very stupid and unreliable”, Annabel Nanninga (JA21) revealed that the cuts are the result of ill-considered “free beer promises, while the billion-dollar tombola around climate is left untouched”. “We want these cuts off the table.” Senator Paul Rosenmöller (GL-PvdA) revealed that investments have been made in recent years precisely to catch up. “Then it is unwise to amputate again a piece of that leg that you have just recovered.”
Consent
However it turns out, the UvA budget 2025 is in place and now awaits approval and advice from the employee participation body. Normally, the Joint Assembly (JA) of the Central Student Council and the Central Works Council must first approve the Framework Letter; after that, there is only outline consent to the budget. This was different this year because the JA could not give assent to the Framework Letter. This leaves the employee participation body with the formal right of assent only on the outlines of the draft budget now presented before it becomes final and can be approved by the Supervisory Board. But by then it is almost Christmas.
Look here if you want to check the entire UvA Draft Budget 2025.
