More optimism at Humanities after plans softened

The Faculty of Humanities must reduce its costs significantly. The Faculty Board believes that a more efficient organisation of the faculty's education at the Bachelor's level should lead to healthier finances three years from now.

The proposals made by the Faculty Board in a transition plan have led to great uncertainty and dissatisfaction these past few months. For instance, six programmes with "too few" students would have to disappear. However, after consultations between the faculty board and the departmental boards, things seem to be a lot less tense.

Options on the table
In an email to all staff, the Faculty Board writes that it will seek other options for the six programmes affected. For example, it will investigate whether the Islam & Arabic and Religious Studies programmes could merge into a single programme. It is also considering a new Bachelor's programme combining the languages French, German and Italian. The current English Language & Culture programme could become "English & Celtic". 

We will learn over a few months how realistic these options are and, if so, what they will entail. The faculty is sticking to the basic principle that all programmes should attract at least 25 first-year students a year.

Ewout van der Knaap, a professor in the German programme, is still critical of his programme's closure, but he describes this new phase as "an opening". Van der Knaap: "Now we've got to see exactly how much space each course can get."

Another important outcome of the consultation is that the requirement for all Humanities programmes to offer at least 60 credits together with other programmes will become less stringent. Many programmes considered this requirement too drastic or even detrimental to their disciplines.

There should also be measures to compensate for the higher workload that the austerity and transition processes will bring.

Hand out
Both Dean Thomas Vaessens and the chairs of the departmental boards hope this will put a tumultuous period of heated discussions behind them. In a faculty council meeting held last Friday, the dean said he was "incredibly happy" with the arrangement, which he considers "a helping hand". Vaessens: "Now, the change is no longer being imposed from the top down, but rather supported by the entire faculty."

In an e-mail to the staff, the four department chairs also spoke of "a new phase", saying they are entering it "with more optimism and a shared determination to meet the financial challenges."
 

Staying in control
Friday's news made it easier for faculty council members to agree to an "addendum" to the 2025 budget. The initial budget had been disapproved by the university administration. A deficit of 7 million in 2025 threatened to rise to 13 million in 2027. Therefore, the Executive Board felt that the faculty had to take measures in that regard. The Faculty of Humanities will receive some 9 million euros over the next three years provided action is taken to achieve sound financial management.

These are unpopular interventions. Starting next year, the faculty will introduce a vacancy freeze, discontinue temporary appointments, and suspend employees' scatter time (when they are not obliged to fill with teaching tasks, Ed.). In the following years, reducing the number of courses should help the faculty save a considerable amount of money.

In total, the faculty thus needs to cut just over 14 million over the next three years. Specifically, this means the faculty will have to do away with 85 FTEs, which the faculty board admits will probably not be possible to do without some forced redundancies. Employees should receive more information about this after the summer of 2025.

However, voting down the budget could have resulted in the university's administration withdrawing financial support and taking the wheel. In the end, only one of the 18 councillors present voted against the budget on Friday morning.

Toine Minnaert, chair of the staff delegation, announced that the decision to vote in favour of it had not fallen lightly on him, especially knowing that "dear colleagues" would have to leave. "In short, it's about people, not FTEs. That prospect hits me hard."

The new agreements between the board and the departments were the thing that gave him confidence that the faculty community was no longer sidelined and could work on the necessary changes. Other staff members and the entire student body concurred.