Faculty Board column: The Faculty Board in transition
In our column of 7 April, we informed you about the new direction we are taking, as the Faculty Board, to meet the financial challenges faced by the faculty, and the action lines that are now our focus. One of these action lines is a package of control measures for the Faculty Office. In this column, we would like to share an outline of where we stand at present.
Current situation: the Faculty Office
The six departments of the faculty office (Finance, HR, Communication & Marketing, Education and Research Policy Officers, Education and Student Affairs, and ICT and Facilities Affairs are at the service of education and research in our faculty. Without the efforts of staff from OSZ, there are no timetables, there is no study advice; without colleagues from IFZ and O&K, there is no support for developments in AI and ChatGPT in education or help with workplaces, and so on. All departments and all staff are there to strengthen and sustain our beautiful faculty.
Nevertheless, savings also need to be made in the Faculty Office, and efforts have been directed towards this for some time now. As we reported earlier, considerable savings have already been achieved for the 2025 budget in terms of the departments’ material budget. However, as in the case of the institutes, staffing constitutes the largest proportion of the support costs. Therefore, department heads have been working on a proposal for further savings, in consultation with stakeholders within the faculty. This involved further scrutiny of the services provided by all the departments. In short: what are the need-to-haves, and what are the nice-to-haves?
A concrete example of savings occurred within the Policy, Advice and Strategy department. When the head of the Research & Impact team left for a job outside the university, it was decided not to open a vacancy for his departure. Instead, the tasks were divided within the Research & Impact team, giving one of the staff members a coordinating role. A smaller team also means making choices in future services. This will be done in consultation with the Faculty Board, the MTs of institutes and the Graduate School.
Adjusting the provision of services
The departments are dependent on several factors. For example, the scope of the education portfolio affects the staffing of Student Affairs and Communication & Marketing; the number of students bears a direct relation to Student Affairs; the size of the Financial department is related to the number of research projects, and the number of employees influences HR. Laws and regulations form another important framework for the departments’ activities. To correctly conduct the compulsory external assessments of research and education, the input of the Policy, Advice & Strategy department is essential.
The departments’ control measures focus partly on ‘natural wastage’. If colleagues leave (due to retirement or finding another job), careful consideration will be given to whether and how the vacancy will be filled. This is already resulting in savings in some places, and at the same time (often) a different approach to the work and a corresponding reduction in services. Another area being explored is standardisation of the services. Fewer individual solutions and last-minute changes (and therefore ad hoc work) should lead to more efficient working practices and therefore to savings in the long term – including in staff costs. Possible examples here could be streamlining (administrative) support for programmes, or the maintenance and updating of the websites. In the period ahead, we will continue to work on further concretising the plans, in consultation with the various stakeholders.
OSZ will steer towards a uniform way of processing in the educational systems. In doing so, the department is responding to the increase in shared education within our faculty. OSZ is also working on a common framework within the faculty that will help make decisions on changes to programmes or course descriptions after deadlines. This way, programmes will know better what can still be modified and what can no longer be done. Fewer (late) changes results in less extra work for OSZ, as changes affect almost all OSZ teams.
Efficiency behind the scenes
The Faculty Office’s work takes place largely behind the scenes: often in the background, but essential for all the faculty’s activities. Precisely because most aspects run so smoothly, the true value of that support is only noticed if it is downscaled. The control measures in the Faculty Office will be felt across the entire faculty; not always by everyone directly or to an equal extent. But what is clear is that things will change, including in the support. And here again, these are not measures that the Faculty Board is taking lightly. The choices to be faced will be difficult, but they are unavoidable. In the long run, all of the measures are working towards sustainably restoring the faculty’s financial health. We will continue to engage in discussion with all those concerned, and tremendously appreciate everyone’s input and commitment.
The Faculty Board,
Henk te Velde
Jeroen Touwen
Jos Schaeken
Saskia Goedhard
Nova Verkerk