No green light yet from participation bodies for UvA budget 2025
For now, the UvA’s central participation bodies will not accept the UvA budget for 2025 without a fight. Six ‘breaking points’ have been formulated that the Central Works Council (COR) and the Central Student Council (CSR) want to see resolved before agreeing to the UvA’s financial plans for next year.
This is contained in a letter that the joint assembly (GV) of CSR and COR sent to the CvB this week. The letter states that the UvA has the budget for next year “reasonably in order”, even though there are “financial storms” ahead, starting in 2025: almost all faculties and services will write red figures next year, and 2026 will not be much better. There’s not a whole lot the council can do about that, so the breaking points that would have to be met before the GV gives the green light are largely immaterial.
Reflection rooms
For a start, the GV would like to be involved from now on in the drafting of the annual Framework Letter, the numerical preparation for the budget. The GV members want to be consulted to provide feedback on the budget preparations. In addition, the GV demands that the budget allocates money for diversity and inclusion policies, such as reflection rooms “precisely to protect the most vulnerable in times of financial crises”.
According to the participation councils, the UvA is among “the worst universities” in the Netherlands when it comes to physical accessibility. Funds for accessibility policy should therefore be “accelerated” and, according to the GV, more money should also be allocated within the budget. For example, there should be a central accessibility hotline and an expertise centre. To remain an attractive employer, “exit interviews” should also be held in future with employees who leave. In drafting AI policy for education, the GV says it has now “lost its patience” with the Executive Board. The GV now demands that this policy be shaped before 1 January.
Ethics
The final breaking point concerns the UvA’s ethics policy. This has been under a magnifying glass over the past year, particularly because of the pro-Palestine demonstrations and the UvA’s collaboration with Israeli universities. The GV now wants two things. First, there should be additional policies to prevent collaborations with external parties guilty of “serious human rights violations”. Second, the foundations of the research ethics policy should be evaluated and adjusted if necessary.
Long-study fine
As points of advice, the GV advises the UvA to include a so-called “solidarity principle” in the budget, so that the broadest shoulders (read: the ‘richest’ departments) will also bear the biggest burden in order “to protect the weaker employment categories such as lecturers and PhD students”. Furthermore, the GV recommends good communication around the cabinet’s austerity measures, especially around the long-study fine. The latter, by the way, seems to have come too late, now that the fine has been removed.
The UvA will now look at which of the above demands and advice might be adopted. The aim is for the UvA and the participation bodies to reach an agreement before Christmas, because around that time the UvA’s Supervisory Board should approve the whole thing. After that, the new budget year can start.
