The UG’s Centre for Information Technology (CIT) wants an additional annual budget of 700,000 euros to work on cybersecurity and other areas. The university council has agreed, provided the CIT puts its affairs in order.
Björn de Kruijf with the university council’s personnel faction thinks it unacceptable that the CIT is requesting extra funds while the rest of the university is facing budget cuts. ‘If one department gets extra money, cuts are made elsewhere’, he says. Moreover, the CIT relies heavily on external hiring, resulting in high costs.
The CIT intends to use the money to improve services to faculties and enhance cybersecurity, which is crucial as universities are frequent targets of cyber attacks.
For instance, the University of Maastricht was targeted during Christmas 2019. The cyber attack disrupted email communication and blocked access to scientific data. The university reportedly paid a ransom to the hackers.
High attrition
Science faction member Guido Visman acknowledges the need to strengthen the CIT, but prefers to focus on improving working conditions. According to him, the centre has a high attrition rate and there are complaints about working conditions. ‘The working environment is unpleasant.’
Moreover, there are doubts about whether the CIT, as a large central IT department, is functioning effectively and whether it might be better placed elsewhere, according to De Kruijf.
Stopgap solution
Visman says the current expansion plans, which include extra software licenses, IT security testing, and staff, do not address the working environment issues. ‘This seems like a stopgap solution, but a very expensive one that I cannot justify to people.’
However, Hans Biemans with the board of directors recognises the necessity. ‘It concerns IT security, and IT is becoming increasingly important. We must be willing to invest more in this.’
Conditions
Ultimately, the university council was convinced to provide the subsidy for the next two years on the condition that the CIT works to reduce workload, sick leave, and expensive external hiring during that period.