UvA budget balanced by government funds, CvB calls for more spending
The UvA presented its draft budget for 2027 this week. Partly thanks to “additional funding from the government”, the projected deficit of several million euros outlined in the Framework Letter has been eliminated. The Executive Board also notes that the university should be “less cautious” with spending.
The UvA has a little more financial room to manoeuvre again. This is clear from the draft budget published by the university this week, which is now open for consultation. Whereas the UvA’s Framework Letter in May – which serves as the basis for the budget – projected a €4 million deficit, the university now expects to present a balanced budget for 2027.
The improved outlook is largely due to funding from The Hague. As a result, “the financial outlook for universities is currently better again”, the Executive Board (CvB) writes alongside the draft budget. “The national budget shows that the government wants to invest in education and research and is partially reversing previous cuts. This is an important signal from the government and provides a good basis for implementing our new strategy in the coming years.”
Less cautious
At the same time, the Executive Board makes a striking observation about its own financial conduct in recent years: it needs to be less frugal. The university budgeted for deficits in 2025 and 2026, but ended up with millions left over each time. The UvA ultimately ended 2025 with a positive result of more than €38 million. For 2026, it is now expecting a surplus of more than €16 million.
“Especially given that we are seeing high workloads in various parts of the university,” this should be “a signal”, the Executive Board writes. “It will take some time to change this cautious culture. The Executive Board will therefore make this a recurring topic of discussion with the faculties, services and central administration throughout the coming year.”
This contrasts with the Framework Letter, in which the message was considerably more pessimistic. At the time, the Executive Board said that the university “will need to continue pulling out all the stops in many parts of the faculties, services and central administration in order to achieve a balanced budget in the coming years.”
Faculties in the red
Nevertheless, concerns have not disappeared everywhere. While the Faculty of Humanities (FGw) is recovering to an expected surplus of almost €2.9 million, the Faculty of Science (FNWI), for example, is still deeply in the red. Although its budgeted deficit of €3.7 million is already more than €1 million lower than the shortfall originally projected in the Framework Letter, the faculty will still have to make substantial cutbacks to meet the university’s requirement of reaching break-even by 2030 at the latest. The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) also continues to expect deficits in the coming years.
The UvA is also still factoring in a decline in student numbers – from more than 43,000 to around 40,000 by 2030, with corresponding “financial implications”. This is partly due to the measures the university is taking as part of its self-regulation efforts to maintain a balance between Dutch and international students: “When it comes to politics, the UvA has a particular responsibility as the largest university with a large intake of international students,” the Executive Board writes.
Consultation
The draft budget is currently open for consultation within the university community and will be discussed with the central representative bodies at the Joint Consultation Meeting (GOV) on November 6. The Executive Board will adopt the final budget in December.
