Last year, the 14 largest Dutch universities collectively made a loss of €105.3 million, representing an average negative return of 1.1%. Losses are also expected for the current and next year, €257.2 million in 2024 and €105.0 in 2025. Universities expect to return to black in 2026 through interventions in costs and expenses. This concludes experts from accounting and consulting firm EY.
The main conclusions from the study are:
- In the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, universities expect losses. Only in 2026 is a positive result expected again;
- The equity declines as a result, from €4.12 billion in 2022 to €3.63 billion in 2026;
- The number of university students, after a slight decrease in 2023, is rising steadily in the coming years;
- Annual investments increase from about €800 million to about €1.1 billion. Universities borrow just under €800 million more for this in the coming years;
- Cash and cash equivalents increased sharply in 2023, but decreased by nearly €700 million in subsequent years.
“Only four of the universities we surveyed managed to stay out of the red last year. The losses of the other universities are mainly caused by a strong increase in personnel costs and the rise in housing costs,” concludes Maarten Verschoor, president of EY Society and auditor of a number of universities in the Netherlands. “Most universities (9) expect to return to positive results from 2026 onwards. To this end, universities are deploying substantial cuts. Especially in the areas of personnel and accommodation. In practice, this means an increase in the number of students per college. However, I foresee that these cuts will not be enough. In their projections, universities have not been able to take into account a number of new factors. For example, the Schoof administration’s plans imply a decrease in funding of hundreds of millions of euros per year. The new reference estimate (with a decrease in student numbers) will also reduce revenues. So the planned cuts will have to be scaled up considerably further to get back into the black,” Verschoor said.
Cybersecurity
In addition to loss, the report looks at other aspects, such as how universities are doing in terms of digitization. The vastly increased size of the ICT, information security, and knowledge security risk area in 2022 remained the same in 2023.
With the digitization of higher education and research and increasing dependence on IT systems, universities are becoming more vulnerable to cyber threats such as hacking, phishing and ransomware. Such incidents can lead to serious consequences such as system downtime, theft of personal data and compromise of academic data.
Like last year, universities are taking measures with a mix of soft and hard controls. This includes raising awareness among staff and students through specific programs and training. Policies are also created and shared. IT audits, conducted according to SURF’s review framework, ensure the quality of the IT infrastructure.
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