Faculties such as arts, law, social, and medical sciences will lose a total of 13.8 million euro in 2022; this amount is equivalent to 186 jobs.
The Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) is the only RUG faculty that will be getting money (9 million euro), the equivalent of 121 FTE. In total, the RUG will lose 65 FTE.
The current reorganisation calculation is still ‘theoretical’, because the RUG has already told the government they don’t like the plans at all. They don’t want to take money from, for instance, social or medical sciences and redistribute it to the science and technical faculties.
‘Enormous dilemma’
But it’s unclear what should happen. Jan de Jeu, the university board member responsible for finances, said during a university council meeting last Thursday that FSE’s position will suffer if it doesn’t get any money while the technical universities do. ‘It’s an enormous dilemma.’
All council factions declared themselves against education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven’s plans. The council said the plans are ‘unacceptable, because they’re not an actual solution to the funding problems in higher education’.
‘The plan also pits the various scientific fields against each other. It’s our responsibility as university council to emphasise that we appreciate each field equally’, a statement reads.
Van Rijn Committee
In October 2018, education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (D66) instructed the Van Rijn committee to investigate the funding of higher education.
One of the committee’s recommendations was more funding for scientific and technical departments. Because the minister said there wouldn’t be any extra funds made available, this would mean the classical universities would lose money in favour of the four technical universities in the country (Eindhoven, Delft, Twente, and Wageningen).