From 2025, the Schoof government will cut more than half a billion euros from higher education and research. This includes cutting starter and incentive grants for researchers and lecturers and limiting internationalisation. In addition, the amount of government funding linked to the annual ‘reference estimate’ for the number of students will be reduced. Fewer students means less money. Additional cuts can be expected from 2026 onwards. In response, the UvA will have to take drastic measures.

The education budget has not yet passed the Senate. The senators want the Minister to clarify exactly how the cuts will be implemented. They will debate this on 11 March. Until the Senate has approved the education budget, it is not yet final.

If the Senate approves the 2025 education budget, it will be final even if the government falls. However, new coalition negotiations would increase the possibility of the cuts being taken off the table. Should the government collapse, our goal would be to have the planned cuts for 2025-2029 removed from the national budget.

Besides the announced cuts, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has been working on the Balanced Internationalisation Bill (WIB) since 2024. The WIB is expected to cause a significant drop in the number of international students over time. In anticipation of this, the government has already announced a reduction in government funding for international students from 2026.

UvA employees can find more information on the WIB at the WIB page on the employee website.

The UvA has to cut around 36 million euros in 2025. It varies per faculty/service unit how much. In addition, we need to prepare for further cuts in the coming years.

The discontinuation of the start-up and incentive grants has been incorporated in the budget. The UvA will receive limited new funding for workload and talent policy. These have also been incorporated.

Thanks in part to resistance from UvA staff and students, an agreement on the education budget was reached in the House of Representatives in December. In the process, the measure against the extended duration of study was scrapped and some of the cuts were reversed. This agreement was reached after the UvA budget was drawn up. It is therefore not yet reflected in the UvA budget.

The other cuts that the Schoof government will implement from 2026 onwards have not yet been incorporated in the multi-year budget.

Read more on the 2025 budget

The UvA is a financially healthy organisation. However, the cuts announced by the government combined with increased personnel and accommodation costs are so substantial that all faculties and service units have to make cuts.

Each faculty/service unit will decide how to make cuts. In addition, a broad approach has been drawn up to save €20 million on operational management over the next years. There is also a savings opportunity in the area of accommodation. A new strategic accommodations plan will be drawn up for this in the coming months.

The way in which cuts will be made varies per organisational unit. You will be informed about this through your own faculty/service unit.

It is important that the transition from a time with starter and incentive grants to a time without them is done properly. Based on a UvA-wide policy framework, faculties will be asked to adopt a transition policy, striking a good balance between meeting their grant obligations and their broader ambitions.

The UvA is setting aside €5 million in the 2025 budget and €2.5 million per year from 2026-2028 for this transition policy.

You will receive general information about the cuts and upcoming actions via the UvA website uva.nl/budgetcuts and the UvA newsletter. You will receive information about the cutbacks within your own faculty/department via your faculty/service unit. 

You can contact your manager or the director of operations of your faculty/service unit for questions about the budget cuts.