‘Cutting housing costs is preferable to cutting education and research’

Last week, Utrecht University announced that it is investigating whether twelve buildings can be divested, sold, leased or demolished. The list includes beloved or special buildings such as the Utrecht School of Governance on Bijlhouwerstraat, the Parnassos building on Kruisstraat and the Kruytgebouw, a municipal monument.

These are also buildings that are in need of substantial, and therefore expensive, renovation. So wouldn't it be cheaper and more sensible to leave these buildings? That is the idea.

700 million
The university has a lot of real estate with many old buildings that will require major maintenance or sustainability upgrades in the foreseeable future. It has been calculated that this will cost the university a total of 2.1 billion euros by 2023. Even then, it was already clear that accommodation costs would have to be reduced.

Due to cuts in higher education funding, the university must reduce these costs even further. Over the next 15 years, it hopes to save approximately 700 million euros on accommodation.

“If we don't do that,”’ says Vice- President Van der Starre, “I know one thing for sure: we will have to cut back on education and research and we may have to lay people off. By cutting housing costs, we will have enough money left for our primary task.”

Margot van der Starre at the de Dies 2025. Photo: Kim O'Leary, Utrecht University

What are the feasible options?
Housing costs include not only the rent or depreciation costs of buildings owned by the UU, but also maintenance, cleaning, security and consumption costs such as energy and water. In order to identify areas where savings can be made on housing, the university has reviewed all 150 of its buildings.

A list has been drawn up of buildings that could potentially be divested, sold, leased or demolished while retaining the campus in the city centre, the international campus and Utrecht Science Park. These are additional buildings; additional because it has been known for some time that, for example, after the renovation of the Van Unnik building, the Administration Building, the Langeveld and Groenman will be sold off, and after the completion of the new Veterinary Medicine building, the Androclus and Nieuw Gildestein buildings will also be disposed of.

The inventory showed that 12 buildings can be sold off sooner than planned. Van der Starre says that they've ‘looked at the options’ with all the faculties and departments.

Various plans, such as new buildings for Olympos and the Circular Pavilion for the Botanic Gardens, have been scrapped. Ongoing projects must cut costs where possible, and new projects will face a 7.5 percent reduction in funding. They will not be stopped. “Breaking contracts is very expensive,” says Van der Starre. “Replacing or making old buildings more sustainable, such as the new building for Veterinary Medicine and the redevelopment of the Van Unnik, will result in modern and sustainable buildings that will ultimately be cheaper in terms of energy costs and maintenance.”

Parnassos
One of the buildings on the list to be sold is the building that has housed Parnassos for many years. The cultural centre is in a pleasant location and has a café, theatre, soundproof rehearsal rooms and classrooms for courses such as Photoshop and painting. A surprising choice, because could a good alternative space be found?

“We have carefully looked at the buildings with all the faculties and services to see what are feasible options,” explains Van der Starre. "The Parnassos building is not at the top of the list to be sold off. But the building is in need of major maintenance and if it is cheaper to move Parnassos, it will be to a good facility. However, it will indeed be a difficult task to find replacement space, which is why I do not think it is very likely that this building will be sold. But we cannot afford not to look for alternatives to Kruisstraat. If we keep the Parnassos building, we will have to look at other ways of saving on real estate.”

“So far, costs have been the only factor in the assessment,” she says. If space can be found at the USP and the students think it is a good idea to move Parnassos to the Science Park in order to bring more life to this campus, she does not rule out a move.

A business perspective
The list of “buildings to be disposed of” in the memo Responsible investment in buildings: the challenges (with solis ID) contains eleven properties. At the top of the list are rented properties that are used for educational purposes. The best known of these is probably Janskerkhof 15a, which was recently occupied by pro-Palestinian activists. By scheduling more efficiently, the lease can be terminated. The building housing the Utrecht School of Governance is also on the list. This building has been owned by the university for a long time and has been home to many programmes. However, this building is also in need of major maintenance.

“I understand that people are attached to some buildings, but we really have to look at it from a business perspective. We have therefore spoken to everyone involved and asked them to help us think about what options they see. In the case of the Utrecht School of Governance, that would be the Kromhout site. We don't want to spring anything on people, but rather come to a solution together.’

Bold building
One building that is not on the list, but which the university is considering, is the Kruyt Building at Utrecht Science Park. “The research process in which we are studying various scenarios has only just begun: redevelopment or perhaps even divestment.”

This twelfth building is one of the oldest colossuses and was built for the sciences. It mainly houses laboratories where chemists and biologists work. Discussions about this building have been going on for years, and one renovation plan after another has been devised and then scrapped.

The latest and seemingly definitive plan is to renovate the building while it is empty. The idea was to remove the asbestos from the building, insulate it, modernise it and connect the four “wings” by building glass fronts between them. This would also give the building a larger usable area.

But now alternatives are being considered. Would it not be cheaper, for example, not to return the science departments to the Kruyt Building in 2035 and to keep them in the Transition Building? One of the reasons for this is that in 2024, the municipality of Utrecht declared the Brutalist-style building a Young Monument. “And that's not convenient,” says Van der Starre. “It means you can't make as many changes to the building. That beautiful plan with the glass façade is no longer an option. But we have to do something about the exterior, because there is asbestos in the balconies that needs to be removed. We will have to discuss this with the municipality.”

Organising encounters
The reduction of office space was initiated some time ago. With every renovation and new construction, the office is designed for activity-based working. This means that there will be different user spaces: for meetings, for working in a team, for concentrated work, for meeting people. No one will have their own desk anymore, unless this is necessary for the work or special needs of an employee. The new plan involves disposing of around 25,000 square metres of office space.

“People are coming to the office less. That's a social development. Even on days that are supposed to be busy, you see office space standing empty. So you can easily do without some of it. When you do come to the office, make sure you do activities that involve meeting your colleagues.”

She does not expect office staff to work from home more often for fear of crowds because there is less office space at UU. She therefore does not think that the sense of community will be affected. "In the past, that arose naturally because everyone came to the office; now you have to organise it. That is the task of the manager and the teams. Those who come to the office come to work with their colleagues. We have to spread the crowds. You have to work together to achieve a good balance.‘

New cabinet
The plans are not set in stone, but it is clear that cuts will have to be made on accommodation, even if a new cabinet reverses previous cuts or comes up with new investments in higher education.

’We spend about 15 percent of our turnover on accommodation. Compared to other universities, we have one of the highest costs in percentage terms. Radboud University in Nijmegen is a comparable university, but they only have one campus and spend 9 percent on real estate, although I'm not sure if they calculate their housing costs in the same way as we do. But we too would prefer to reserve a larger portion of our budget for education and research."

The vice-chair is not optimistic about the new cabinet's intentions for education. "You should not underestimate the damage caused by the fall of the previous cabinet. Our confidence in the government has been severely damaged. Even if we do receive more money at some point, we will wonder whether it will be taken away again. Moreover, the cuts made when the cabinet fell are still on the table. It could take a year before a new cabinet is formed, and until then, no additional funds will be made available."

Representation
The University Council has now been informed about the savings plans for accommodation. The University Board assumes that faculty and service boards will take their participation into account in the plans for their own faculty and service. Plans regarding accommodation are regularly shared with the councils. If the Strategic Accommodation Plan needs to be amended, it will be submitted to the University Council.