‘Is there not a millstone at the end of the lifeline?’

When there is something interesting in Delta, I usually immediately get an email or app from a colleague. At about midday on 23 April, I got eight emails and apps about the article We intentionally did not opt for the cheese grater method.

To summarise it simply, the article is an explanation from the Executive Board about the current round of cutbacks interspersed with editorial background information. At the heart of many questions is the question ‘is this true?’. But truth is relative.

The article starts with the conclusion that in 2024 and 2025 TU Delft will make a loss and that we need to work towards balancing the budget. This is indeed true and it cannot have been caused by the cutbacks that are now being put into effect by this Cabinet.

Then there is an important Executive Board statement of finding policy-based cutbacks instead of using the cheese grater method. A good starting point that various Executive Boards have proclaimed for decades.

Finding joint solutions takes time

However, during the OOD (Support Services Organisation Project) reorganisation in 2004 there was a central committee of experts from various parts of TU Delft that looked at central cutbacks. The purpose was to avoid tunnel vision. Now the deans and the management bodies are required to first come up with internal plans. After that they are expected to take a broader umbrella view of faculties and services.

The article refers to a call by the trade unions for a vision. One of the points that we have raised is to look again at the whole institutional package. This successful experiment (in Dutch) with TU Delft-wide bachelor teaching was scrapped, but it could have all sorts of advantages from savings to greater exchanges of academic personnel between faculties and, for students, being able to switch between degree programmes more easily. Only, it is not very likely that the deans will come forward with this idea.

So, like the Executive Board, I hope that the deans and directors can think TU Delft-wide, but I do not really expect this, and certainly not with the planned time pressure. In the four months that they have, they can only look at their own faculty and service. Finding joint solutions takes a lot longer.

I hear from several sources that guest teachers will have to leave

In regard to the announcement that a cheese grater will not be used, I hear from several sources that guest teachers will have to leave and that temporary contracts for teachers will come to an end. Apart from the consequences that this will have on the workload (and blood pressure) of the permanent staff members, it is clear that this ‘easy’ option is definitely the preferred one.

No one will contradict the Executive Board when it says that it wants to avoid as many forced dismissals as possible. The solutions of not filling vacancies as a matter of course and limiting outsourcing have been tried often. And indeed, much can be gained, certainly in terms of not outsourcing.

Delta refers to a very good Price Waterhouse Coopers report. It says that since 2021 TU Delft has outsourced more and more. In 2023 it amounted to almost one eighth of all staff salaries.

At 30% of the personnel costs, the hiring of external staff at University Services is extremely high. According to the Executive Board, there are reasons for this. ‘The costs were mostly at Finance, IT and real estate. People for permanent employment could sometimes simply not be found,’ it says.

I wonder if this is correct. I have a lot of contact with my trade union colleagues in Eindhoven. The market situation at Brainport Eindhoven is very different to TU Delft. ASML and other companies need a lot of personnel and TU Eindhoven employees can easily earn more outside the university.

But if you look at outsourcing in Eindhoven, it amounts to just 4% of the total salaries and has been far lower than the national average for years, while TU Delft has led the race in outsourcing for years.

Will we rent the buildings in Rotterdam and if so, for how much?

Partly because of this the prospects for TU Delft are not good. But the Executive Board claims that there may be a lifeline – the TU Delft campus in Rotterdam. The campus is not there yet, but will have to be built at significant cost. If TU Delft does not invest in it itself, as is promised, will we then have to rent the buildings and if so for how much and how long ? Who will stand as guarantor? What income will it generate?

Dutch student numbers are dropping at TU Delft. Ever fewer pre-university education pupils are opting for physics and technology in the Netherlands. Of course we can fill the Rotterdam campus with international students, but that would only invite politicians to include the technical universities in the Balanced Internationalisation bill.

The idea of a Rotterdam campus is interesting. But if we look at other recent interesting ideas, such as the Proton Therapy Clinic where many TU Delft millions have been invested, the reality is often less rosy. How can we be certain that there will not be a millstone at the end of the lifeline?