1,6 million ‘unpleasant surprise’ for TiSEM

Dean Lex Meijdam, from Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TiSEM) is alarmed about the financial situation in his department. His faculty is confronted with declining student numbers and a smaller budget: 1,6 million less in 2015. Meijdam: “It’s a disaster if this trend continues.”

According to Meijdam, the staff of the faculty has a tendency to cherish the status quo. This has to end. He stresses that the faculty is doing well at some fronts, like student surveys, contact hours and grants. Next to that, the financial reserves are fine. However, the faculty is attracting an insufficient amount of students. TiSEM had already counted on a loss of 1,6 million in 2015 because of this, but now it has to double that amount.

Dean Meijdam: “We expected the first half, but the second one is an unpleasant surprise. The main reason is the declining student inflow. Three quarters of our budget comes from student numbers.” The decline is strange, becaus ’the market’ grows. Meijdam: “We don’t profit from the growing market. We can not keep this up, we have to change our ways if we wan’t to reach our goals.”

Meijdams solution is simple: “We have to make an marketing effort. But marketing only works if you sell the right product, so we have to improve the faculty’s studies.” One of the criteria that were left behind in the student survey was the link with the job market. Meijdam wants to strengthen the department of career services. In the meantime, the faculty stops the outsourcing of exam surveillance, cuts finances for PhD-students and hands out less grants to Research Master-students. Also, it will close Koopmans and reduce catering costs. These measures have to make sure that the shortage will be as small as possible in 2015.

Criticism
When Meijdam expressed his criticism at a strategy meeting, the scientists that attended the meeting were very critical. The fact that the vice dean was not present, couldn’t count on any sympathy. Next to that, some people wondered if the dean was sure that the education portfolio was the problem. Professor Frank de Jong mentioned that the department of Economics was also part of the problem: “some of the professors from that department are to be found on t.v. more often than in front of a classroom. They have had a shortage in their budget for years.” He called the solutions that Meijdam brings “short term solutions”.

Commission
The discussion jammed on a lack of information. If the problem is not clear, the solution is hard to formulate. Arjan van Witteloostuijn, vice dean in research, took the initiative to form a commission. The commission will collect all the needed information for a meeting from the Management team, the professors and the departments. Meijdam says there are enough applicants for this commission, that will perform a market analysis. “The report will be open for comments by any member of the faculty. It will be a broad and deep proces, and as many colleagues as possible will be involved.