The UG is looking into whether it’s feasible to decrease the total number of faculties at the university. In one scenario, seven faculties would merge into one giant faculty called social sciences and humanities.
The recommendation for a faculty reorganisation originates from the action plan the university is drawing up to weather the upcoming budget cuts made by the government. The recommendation is included in the final report sent to the board of directors. UKrant has read this report.
Three scenarios
In the report, the work group presents three scenarios. In the first scenario, the faculties will remain separate but will have to increase their collaborative efforts.
In the second, three small faculties will be integrated into larger ones. Spatial sciences, philosophy, and religion, culture and society would be integrated into the faculties of arts, law, behavioural and social sciences, or economy and business.
The third and most drastic scenario would merge these seven faculties into one large faculty, renaming it the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).
Possibilities
The work group writes that in the latter scenario, there are two possibilities: either the seven faculties will fall under an overarching ‘SSH domain’ governed by an executive committee,
or the SSH faculty will be divided into institutes. These institutes will either constitute the current faculties as they are, but they could also be ‘substantively clustered’.
Advantages and drawbacks
The work group hasn’t recommended the best decision, but does describe the advantages and drawbacks of each scenario. In scenario one, each faculty will retain its own identity. Another advantage is the ‘lower transition costs and organisational peace’. A drawback would be the existing ‘complex decision making’. It would also lead to ‘limited economies of scale’ and ‘the smaller faculties would remain vulnerable’.
In scenarios two and three, faculties run the risk of losing their identity. These scenarios will also lead to higher transition costs, and implementing the scenarios would be excessively complex.
The advantage to the second scenario is that it would create four equivalent faculties, simplifying decision making and collaboration. Scenario three would create a ‘strong, manifest block that could measure itself with the medical and technical disciplines’. It would also lead to large economies of scale and ‘strategic clout’.
Tricky
The work group says it’s important that all faculties support the potential plans. But as the recommendation states, this could be tricky. The four largest faculties’ deans are in favour of reorganising the seven faculties into four large SSH faculties. But the three smaller faculties prefer either to remain separate, or to merge into one big SSH faculty.
A notification from the board of directors on MyUniversity says that an independent process supervisor will be writing a follow-up recommendation, supported by a work group. This process supervisor should be issuing the recommendation before the summer.