Tilburg uni cuts budget by 15 percent

Tilburg University has to make drastic cutbacks. Temporary contracts will not always be extended. Whether there will be compulsory redundancies is unclear.

As a result of the government’s cuts in higher education, the university has to cut its expenses by fifteen percent. The support services will face most of the budget-cut blows. Last week, the Executive Board and the deans of various faculties discussed the effects of the budget cuts.

During the faculty council at the faculty of Law, dean Randall Lesaffer announced that he has to cut his budget by ten to fifteen per cent.  “That is a substantial amount. We agreed that research and teaching programs will be spared as much as possible. There will be cutbacks, but in some programs will also be invested.”

“As for the support staff, we aim to decentralize the support services at the university. Whenever possible, staff members will get a support job with teaching and research programs. We do not want to wait too long with these personnel changes. It will be a difficult period. It is inevitable that people will have to leave. “Personnel costs are the highest expense at Tilburg University. ” [MW/transl. YV]