No TU Delft-wide stop on vacancies, local measures instead

What is TU Delft’s financial situation and what does it mean for staff members? On 14 October, as the 2025 draft budget was being finalised, Executive Board member Marien van der Meer updated the internal unions in a consultation meeting.

Van der Meer recalled that a negative balance of EUR 50 million had been budgeted for 2024. The 2023 annual account stated that TU Delft can handle this as it had accumulated a financial reserve of EUR 531 million over the previous years.

Furthermore, most of the shortfall would only be temporary. All personnel got a pay rise in 2024 in line with the collective labour agreement (CAO), but this additional expense for TU Delft only covered the personnel costs that are paid with money that comes directly from the Ministry of Education. There was no compensation for projects that are financed through other means. On top of that, the high energy prices led to higher expenditures.

Turning things around

A negative balance of EUR 24 million was budgeted for 2025 in the multi-year budget. “This has to be reduced,” Van der Meer told the unions. Faculties and services were asked – as they were this year too – to look for means to turn this around in their own budgets. Faculties also need to make plans to spend their own financial reserves.

TU Delft’s University Services need to look at more efficient operations by limiting the hiring of third parties and examining their purchasing and travel policies. The Executive Board also believes that meeting services can be simpler and more efficient. Van der Meer also suggested making decisions on what to do and not do. The planned investments for the TU Delft campus that are budgeted for 2025 and 2026 at EUR 20 million will remain. In the meantime, the Executive Board will look critically at the strategic financial resources, Van der Meer said. The longer-term strategy is set out in the document Contours 2030.

Local measures

To the unions, Van der Meer guaranteed that there will be no TU Delft-wide stop on vacancies or reorganisations. “But we do ask for great alertness,” she said. That this leeds to concerns was apparent in the question round that was pushed to the start of the meeting. Fred Veer, Chair of the internal trade unions in the Local Consultation Committee, talked about a presentation at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering on 10 October where staff members heard that no vacancies will be issued and that retiring staff members will not be replaced. “There are concerns about the workload.” Before Van der Meer could address these concerns, the meeting had to move to the next point on the agenda (social safety).

It is known that other faculties have had to take far reaching measures to reduce costs, although very few details have been released. One exception is Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS). Dean Lucas van Vliet started the 1 October newsletter with a long foreword about the internal cost reduction measures. These involve a partial stop on vacancies and a stop on new investments in equipment from the first fund flow. The stop on vacancies will continue at least to the end of 2024 and will cover positions that free up as long as not filling them does not lead to a ‘serious disruption’ of the daily operations.

Van Vliet calculated that things were not going well financially for the Faculty. He expects a negative balance of EUR 7.5 for 2024 and EUR 12 million for 2025. Here too higher salaries and energy costs play a role, the Dean explains, but also that EEMCS has had a strong increase in the number of students and thus had had to hire extra staff.

A zero budget for 2026

All efforts are needed as the Executive Board would like to see a zero budget for 2026 in order to retain ‘enough reserves’. This goal is still ongoing, so it appears from the LO meeting, even though Van der Meer admits that these are “turbulent times” with significant Cabinet cutbacks in the near future.

In contrast to some other universities, the Executive Board does not seem too pessimistic about the future. Van der Meer says that the scrapping of the starter and incentive grants will “not have a major” impact on TU Delft. The so-called plans are “much more important”, and these will remain, although at the cost of the starter and incentive grants. The impact of the law that aims to reduce the number of international bachelor students will “not affect” TU Delft that much, Van der Meer expects, as there are relatively few English language bachelor degree programmes.

Beethoven and Defence

Van der Meer said that the Executive Board is exploring new opportunities to “continue investing for the long term”. She cited the ‘Beethoven Project’ in which the Government is investing billions in the chip sector in the Eindhoven region. According to her, it is an option to explore whether the Rotterdam Campus would qualify, given that expanding TU Delft to Rotterdam would only be possible with extra external funds.

The preparations for the Rotterdam Campus are putting pressure on TU Delft’s budget. EUR 8 million had been set aside in the budget for 2024, on the premise that a multi-year budget will be made later on and that the major expenditures – such as a new building – will be financed from external sources.

There may also be other pots of money. Van der Meer said that TU Delft will see if there are other European subsidies to apply for. And a lot of money will come from the Ministry of Defence, in part for research and innovation. The Executive Board member said that “it is interesting to see what opportunities there are. Although we do understand if people say that we should not get involved in this. We need to talk about it.”