Recently, the faculty board completed the FSS 2025 Annual Report (only in Dutch). This annual report contains relevant facts, figures and financial statements, as well as the progress reports on the various faculty strategic ambitions. We look back with pride on the past year and how we jointly tackled the challenges we faced.
Whereas in recent year the focus has been on creating a pleasant work and study environment, we added the task of implementing cost-cutting measures in 2025. The annual plan therefore centred around the programme A future-proof Faculty of Social Sciences. The projects included in this programme have been successfully completed. The internal relocation is a good example of this.
Although we look back on the past year with pride, it also took a heavy toll. The workload was high and the inability to replace colleagues led to uncertainty and often even higher workloads. The transition phase demanded a lot from people. With fewer people and resources, programmes were adjusted. This was sometimes at odds with the aim of creating a pleasant work and study environment. We tried to limit the negative effects as much as possible by staying in touch, being creative with the resources that were available and continuing to listen to each other.
With the Future-proof FSS project, we are working towards a balanced budget in 2027. The 2025 annual report shows that there was still a deficit of €2.3 million in 2024 and that a deficit of €0.6 was expected for 2025. Thanks to all our joint efforts, 2025 ultimately ended with a surplus of €0.6 million.
The positive result in 2025 is mainly due to the reduction in staff: 553 fewer FTE comparted to 2024. This means that, as a faculty, we are likely to achieve the expected reduction of 97 FTE in staffing sooner than expected. Understandably, this surplus may raise the question of why we are not (partially) reversing the austerity measures. The Future-proof FSS project consists of several sub-projects, both for the short and long term. Ultimately, they will ensure that education, research and operations are carried out more efficiently over a period of three years. This is necessary because an expected decrease of 97 FTE is anticipated between October 2024 and the end of 2027.
A conscious decision has been made to maintain the measures taken because staff turnover is not always easy to predict and government funding is decreasing. We believe consistency in our policy and measures is important and we are sticking to the plans we have made. In this way, we are ensuring that the faculty will continue to be able to organise education, research and operational management effectively in the future.
The faculty board is currently discussing how to use the surplus from 2025 in future years. More clarity on this is expected in May 2026.