Radboud University must reckon with a considerably less favorable financial outlook over the next few years. The main cause for this is reduced income for all universities, as the government expects fewer university students. For Radboud University, this may lead to a structurally negative result of many millions. In addition, there are rising costs, including salaries. Finally, other expenses including the expected construction costs from the 2022 campus plan have also risen sharply. All this leads to a reconsideration of expenditures.
In the expenditure of its resources, the Executive Board is of course committed to prioritizing the execution of our primary processes of education and research. In order to continue to do so in the future, the Executive Board is pausing the execution of the current campus plan, which lists the construction and renovation projects of the university until 2032 with a look ahead to 2040. The first major project to be implemented from this plan would have been the new housing for the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, and the Faculty of Arts. As it now appears, this project will have to be postponed for at least a year. The Executive Board expects to be able to provide more clarity about potential adjustments to the campus plan in the first half of 2025.
Not only with regard to the campus plan, but also when it comes to other expenditures, the university will consider how to make its choices as effectively as possible. This will be taken up jointly with the faculty boards.
Agnes Muskens, vice president of the Executive Board: ‘For everyone looking forward to new housing, this is a major disappointment. That also applies to all the people who have been working hard on these plans. At the same time, we are obliged to maintain sound and healthy management of our university for the sake of students, employees and society. Because of the changed financial outlook, we must now take a step back and consider efficiency. Only then can we continue to make well-founded and responsible choices for the long term, in the interest of everyone.’