On the 24th of August we all got an email that caused immediate uproar on Facebook. The email outlined that budget cuts are upon us. Bigger classes, less courses, possibly more tuition fees and students; it all sounds rather overwhelming. A long, 9-page document accompanied the email. But what did it really say? This article presents a clear overview of the most important plans, from a critical student’s perspective.
UCR is predicted to run a loss of 500k as per 2018. That enormous gap has two direct causes, firstly because all universities in the Netherlands get less money per student, leading to the first 200k loss. That, however, leaves 300k. In the past 10 years UCR received 300k per year – in the form of a loan – from Delta Energy company. UCR has always known that this money would not be coming in from 2017 onwards, but never acted to that fact. At the information session Thursday the 15h of September, when asked about this quite obviously upcoming deficit, the Dean could not answer anything but “the process could have been more fluent”.
Even though the Management knew this gap was coming up, they could not anticipate this properly, as UCR has been through rough financial conditions ever since its founding. That being said, the Management Team was not ignoring the situation, but they could possibly have overestimated the expectations about future income from the endowment fund called Stichting University College Roosevelt Fonds. The fund is a long term investment, generating money through interest. However, interest has been much lower than expected. Besides, financial prognoses are difficult; there have also been years with 900k profits. This money, in the profit years, was not saved and put to reserves, but rather used to pay off loans, not allowing for the creation of a buffer.
In short, the dean describes the situation as a perfect storm, 200k less government funding, low interests, and disappointing outside funding. As hard as it might be for a starting university to have to be financially sound, it seems that UCR was too preoccupied with other issues and overlooked this upcoming situation, they label it as “bad luck”. They shifted their priorities to other matters, that must have been important at that time, but it is now causing troubles.
Regardless of the cause of this 500k loss, it cannot be a surprise that the situation needs a solution. The ideas that were presented to us in the email have been elaborately discussed with all involved parties; MT, Heads of Departments, the Council, in which students of UCR are included, and the Board of Trustees. The plan includes five measures to be taken by the spring semester 2018.
1. Less courses and larger classes. The number of courses will go from 214, back to 200. The courses to be cancelled first are the Psychobiology course, the 0-level French, a Law course, and the entire Theatre and Media track. The other courses to be cancelled are yet to be announced, but at the info session Dr. de Wit assured that this will happen in fall 2017 at the very latest, but ideally before summer. This to prevent situations similar to the ones pre-med and theatre and media students are experiencing now. Besides decreasing the number of students, the average number of students is going up from 20.9 students per course to 22.4, and from a maximum of 25 students per course to 28. Consequently, some instructors will have an increased workload, on top of what they already indicate in an employee survey as being a too heavy job and even though the document speaks of some ways to try to improve that situation, there are no concrete measures yet. This measure saves 234k.
On short notice cancelling courses and even an entire track is extremely disappointing for students that want to follow this courses, especially when they’ve only started at the start of this semester. However we must take into account the fact that contract agreements and unexpected leaves from other professors make it very difficult for UCR to make predictions about complete tracks. Apparently they chose to let things settle for themselves, watched how the situation developed and then acted upon it. This means that, yes, changes are known quite a bit later and more sudden, but it also means that people do not unnecessarily get fired.
2. More tutees per tutor. The number of tutees per tutor will go up from 17 to 20. Originally this would even be 22, but after relocating 25k from the research fund to the tutor task it will be 20. To lighten the workload for the tutors, UCR will look into ways that we will be able to register for courses ourselves. This measure saves 45k on a yearly basis.
3. Higher tuition fee. UCR will research the possibility of raising the tuition fees, again. We all, of course, still remember the campus life fee, that went hand-in-hand with a tuition fee raise, only last semester. The document is very careful around this topic, stating all the reasons why the fees should not be raised, but also outlining some why it would be helpful. Only the future can tell where this will end up, as the information is still very vague. Now we all wonder: “Didn’t we just have a tuition raise with the promise fees would not be increased again for a while? Even though they say they are only “researching the option”?
This reaction was anticipated upon and discussed about in the Council. UCR is indeed drafting a new strategic plan including a potential discussion on tuition fee increases. Daan Brok, member of the UCR Council last year, informed us that there are indeed plans to discuss this. At first, it was decided not to raise the issue in the newsletter, but as the student representatives in the Council deemed it fair (for transparency’s sake), it was decided to include the possibility. Realistically, it is an option that must be explored, but this will be done in the broader context of the new strategic plan with plenty of student input.
4. More students. Another possibility is to raise the number of students. Although cautious to not lower admission standards, this is a serious suggestion. The money that those extra students would bring in, would make a substantial difference.
UCR mentions very easily to raise the number of students. This would make quite a significant difference to our student community. A 17 percent increase to be precise. This is not even mentioned in the consideration about this point and seems to be bluntly overlooked.
5. External funding. UCR will attempt to seek external support. One already achieved way is by the increased tuition fees as of fall 2016, leading to an increased income of 68k per year. Further it will try to receive more promotion bonuses from UU, leading to between 59k and 120k per year. Besides, UCR will try to get more government and academic funding.
Now, one of the reasons that we are in this situation is because UCR is receiving less money from the government. To the attentive observer, it therefore seems unlikely that money will be found in the foreseeable future. This thus seems to be based somewhat on wishful thinking.
All in all, many different measures. The plan will be implemented step by step, with fifty percent in 2017 and the other fifty in 2018, eventually closing the gap and resolving the “perfect storm”. How many other problems will result from this one solution is something only time can tell. We can only hope that UCR will learn from this process and hopefully won’t make the same mistakes in the future. But as you have seen throughout this article, many implementations are surrounded by vagueness and insecurity. There are still many questions left to ask for us students, and it is important to keep ourselves informed about this whole process.
How impactful exactly the consequences of these budget cuts will be is still uncertain. Many Pre-med and Theatre and Media students have already found themselves in unexpected, uncertain positions. Dr. de Wit was clear during the info session, “It’s UCR’s responsibility to make sure to have you graduate with all requirements.” Both Dr. de Wit and Dean van den Brink assured everyone that when unreasonable situations occur you should go to discuss this with your tutor. It only seems fair that we all make sure to keep them to this promise.
That should not be the only thing we discuss, though. Even though these measures are inevitable, this is our university, our education and our future we should keep talking and thinking about what is right and good for us and our alma mater.
Anouk Daams is a Politics and Law major from Voorhout, The Netherlands.
Gerjanne Hoek is a History, Linguistics and Politics major from Bunschoten-Spakenburg, The Netherlands.
