This is shown in the faculty’s multiannual budget 2018-2021. The first few years are all about ‘considerable investments’, says Rita Landeweerd with the faculty board. ‘Especially in education. We will be hiring extra university lecturers, for four years each.’
BSS will be paying for the extra staff with the study advance: money that the government has saved now that the basic study grant has been abolished. That money flows back to higher education, and is used to improve the quality of education. BSS has interpreted this as extra lecturers.
19 FTE
In addition to the study advance, the faculty is also investing part of the saved reserves in education. But, says Landeweerd, they can’t just spend the money willy-nilly: ‘We would like to have a reserve of at least four million euros at the end of the planning period.’
To that end, BSS will be more spend-thrifty from the second half of 2019 onward. The faculty will have to save an amount that translates into nineteen full jobs. ‘That doesn’t mean that we will be firing nineteen people, of course’, Landeweerd emphasises. ‘That comparison is meant to give us something tangible to hold on to.’
The various departments at the faculty will have to come up with their own plan to limit their expenses. ‘We’ve had a constructive response to this’, says Landeweerd. ‘Sure, some people are worried. The changes will not go unnoticed. But we think it can be done. The departments themselves can see the discrepancy between what comes in and what goes out, and that this needs critical assessment.’