‘Looking together at how we spend our money smartly’

What will happen?

The MAB working group has identified three tracks where they see opportunities to make savings. These will be spread out over four years.

1: Services are going to cut their costs and fixed costs for buildings (such as energy and cleaning costs) and IT, for example. Robert van der Drift is project leader of this operation.

2: Departments will also cut their costs as well as generate additional revenue. Again, this will be a gradual process, and the savings will be made according to the available capacity. Ingrid Heynderickx is the project leader.

3: Co-financing infrastructure and working on better margins in second- and third-tier funded projects. Patricia Jaspers is in the lead for this project.

Together

Groothuis: "The most important thing is that we do it together. For example, when services make choices to do less of or stop an activity, they do so in consultation with the departments, testing the effect such a proposed measure may have. And cuts elsewhere can also be suggested. That kind of conversation is very important."

Our departments are given the confidence to come up with savings that they deem sensible.
Patrick Groothuis, Executive Board Vice President

No layoffs

The starting point for savings is to keep everyone on board, Groothuis says. "We have a lot of vacancies and there is natural turnover in our services and departments. If someone retires, you may decide not to replace them. That's also a way of making savings."

Groothuis sees SQUAD, the self-assessment program of all TU/e services, coinciding with the cutbacks. "If we choose together to implement less customization and more standardization, we can also save costs," he says.

How to proceed?

In May, the services and departments will submit their savings proposals. Groothuis knows that "the various working groups are already working hard on this challenge." Those proposals serve as input for the budget memo due at the end of June, which will form the basis for TU/e's multi-annual budget for the period 2025-2029.

Groothuis emphasizes that "our university is in good shape, we will grow from 13,000 to 15,000 students in the next few years, and we will continue to invest in our campus. But we must remain critical of our spending. And make sure that we can adjust financially. Fortunately, that's something we do unassumingly and in good consultation."

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