The UG saved almost 250,000 euros by closing buildings for an extra week during the Christmas holidays. The uni wants to continue the trend and is considering closing buildings in the summer.
This is according to a memo discussed with the university council on Thursday. As expected, the biggest saving is in energy consumption: some 221,000 euros.
The UG also saved an estimated 10,000 euros on water costs and another 10,000 euros on direct staff costs.
Energy prices
The university normally closes its doors between Christmas and New Year. But due to high energy prices, the university decided in the winter of 2022/2023 to close many buildings the week after the start of the year as well.
With the UG facing a huge cost-cutting exercise in the second half of last year, the uni decided to reintroduce the two-week closure. Exceptions were the UB, where students could go for the second week, and two buildings on Zernike.
No major impact
An evaluation shows that the closure did not have a major impact on students and staff. During the period between January 2 and 5, 40, 65, 129, and 48 staff were in any of the open buildings respectively. The service desk is said to have received only a few requests for workstations and there were no complaints.
The money saved by the closure will go back to where the savings were made, i.e. mostly the faculties. The UG wants to see if such savings are also possible during the summer weeks by closing 20 percent of the buildings then.