Adjustments at the university
Adjustments at the university
By 2029, NMBU needs to cut 200 million NOK of their expenses, and in 2025 alone, they plan on cutting 100 million NOK. The past few years, NMBU has been spending money from the ‘savings account’ to balance the budget, and there is not a lot of money left. No public university or college has gone bankrupt before, so we don’t know what will happen in that case, but NMBU’s management does not exactly want to find out. A process of adjustment has already begun at the university, but to make it work, several measures must be put in place. What made this process happen, what does it mean to make adjustments at the university, and how will this affect your studies?
Journalist: Li Li Than Winn
Translator: Eva Weston Szemes
Photographer: Jørgen Berg Yndestad
Why has the school’s budget been cut?
The Department of Education (Kunnskapsdepartementet/KD) has made it clear for universities and colleges that a reduction in funding is the new reality. This funding is meant to cover the cost of being a university or college, in other words, to do research and education. At the same time, NMBU, like the rest of the country, is experiencing a power shortage, which results in increased operating expenses. The combination of increased costs of electricity, a general increase in expenses and a reduction in funds from the state results in an unbalanced budget, “The increase in prices is bigger than what the state compensates for” says rector Siri Fjellheim.
After the pandemic, expenses have increased and NMBU has spent more than the received funding. Rector Siri calls the difference between income and expenses the ‘financing gap’, and according to their prognoses, this will keep growing over time. If NMBU kept going with ‘business as usual’, the expenses will stay around the same, while the funding will decrease year by year. The account for 2023 shows that NMBU has already gone 90 million NOK over the budget. In 2024, they calculated an over-spending of about 100 million NOK. This is not an unknown issue for NMBU, but they have managed the last few years.
The inflation is higher than what the government is compensating us for
Since 2021, the university has managed to keep their budget in balance with the help of ‘savings’. These savings come from delaying renovations and building projects, and unspent money from previous years. The sum of unspent money in 2020 was 170 million NOK. In 2023, only 32 million NOK is left. This drastic reduction in savings means that NMBU does not make enough money to pay their expenses, and every year, they budget with a net minus. According to the rector’s evaluation, the university does not have enough funds to make it through 2025 if this does not change. The financing gap gets bigger every year, and NMBU cannot increase their income to avoid spending the saved funds. Therefore, a big reduction in expenses is necessary to get NMBU back on track. As a result, you cannot exclude letting people go as a result of staff reduction as an economic measure.
NMBU has to cut at least 200 million NOK by 2029 if they are to get the economy back on track, but where does this number come from? By 2029, the university expects the funds from KD to be 90 million NOK less than today. This is because the government wants to reduce the funding back to the level from 2019, before the pandemic. At the same time, NMBU has to cut costs by 100 million NOK this year because the over-spending last year was about 100 million NOK. The university has to spend 100 million NOK less to stay within the budget. This comes out to a reduction in spending of at least 200 million NOK.
What is the plan moving forward?
Making adjustments at a university involves re-organizing the whole running of the organization. This is a daunting process, and you have to decide which task to prioritize in order to reach the process’ end goal. Here, the main goal is to make NMBU’s economy balanced again. To reach this goal, several measures have to be put in place, “This is an elephant. How to eat an elephant? Piece by piece” says Siri.
In January, NMBU decided not to hire any more people in 2025. Before the summer holiday, our rector will evaluate this measure and see which consequences and which economic effect it has had on the university. It should be noted that 70% of NMBU’s expenses are tied to wages, the other 30% to the running of the university. Not hiring more people is one of many measures the university uses to reduce their expenses.
In June 2024, the university passed the plan for developing the campus and decided that NMBU should reduce its area by 5-10% by 2030. To make the necessary adjustments, different areas have been listed in which costs can be cut. This includes reducing staffing, better use of areas and cutting structural costs.
One possible measure to make better use of our areas is the project of localizing IHA and VET in the same place. This project, known as SBV is already underway.
This is an elephant. how do you eat an elephant, in small portions
One of the issues is the lack of space. In the first report from the project, concerning the topic of areas for students and teaching, several possible solutions were suggested on how to make space for the IHA students. According to the report, they are already struggling to make room for all the Veterinary and Veterinary Nursing students in the Veterinary Building. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine how to make space for students of both Animal Sciences and Aquaculture without big structural changes in the use of the building.
This is only the beginning of NMBU’s plan of using their areas more efficiently. Multiple buildings have to be freed up to reduce expenses. So far, NMBU has no plans to sell the Animal Science building, but it might be rent out. Another case most people have probably heard of is the making of Tårnbygningen into a hotel. This will bring the area usage down, but the profit is unclear, and multiple offices and teaching areas will be lost. With this, a good plan needs to be in place to make up for the loss.
Other ways NMBU works to cut costs is through the project SmartCampus. The project is about finding out how often rooms on campus are used, and by how many. This way, they can regulate the temperatures and ventilation in the different buildings as needed. Through regulating these things, the university has already managed to reduce some of the costs concerning the heating of rooms.
But it does not stop here. 100 million NOK is a large sum, so fundraising is one of the prioritised tasks in 2025. Fundraising in the university sector is not really a tradition in Norway, but NMBU has come to the conclusion that this is something they have to do to get funds from places other than KD. The money collected through fundraising does not necessarily have to go to a specific research project, but can rather be spent on education and research in general. The income from this project can for example be spent on Aud. Max.
Fundraising requires good preliminary work. NMBU started establishing fundraising commitments in 2023, but the university is still in a very early starting phase. Among other things, they are investigating how to form their own fundraising. Before you can start fundraising, you need a good network, friend-raising. Our rector has taken on the task as our lead, to get in touch with potential givers.
How will you as a student be affected by this?
The adjustments at NMBU have been put in place to change the current rhythm of the university, and of course the students are an important part of that. Even so, our rector and managing director say that the students will not notice too much of it if they are good at it, “If we are good at it, the students will not be affected too negatively” says managing director Lars Atle Holm.
Tuntréet has interviewed both rector Siri Fjellheim and managing director Lars Atle Holm. According to them, the administration and the staff will notice the adjustments more than the students. Both the administration and the faculties work with a tight budget, but this should not affect the quality of education research according to the rector. Their aim is to shield the students as much as possible. Rector Fjellheim explains that NMBU is an important part of society, and it is important for the university to uphold the quality of the ones they send into the workforce.
Moving forward, NMBU will put more effort into getting more students to finish on time and get them into the workforce. This is one of the ways NMBU can get more money from KD. After some changes from KD, the number of studied credits is more profitable for the university than the number of exmatriculated students. Knowing this, NMBU will work on still offering flexible studies for part-time students.
Part of the adjustment process is that the faculties will collaborate more closely with each other. With this goal, you might see more collaboration between different fields of science, and hopefully more communication between the faculties. As a student, you can look forward to studying with more students from different faculties, if this is not normal for you already. This is part of the structural savings the university wants to improve and keep going. From now on, NMBU will get used to solving the same tasks while using fewer resources.
If we do well, it will have little negative cosequences to the students
Cutting 100 million NOK from the budget in a year is a substantial amount of work. When 70% of the expenses is wages, the chances of a staff reduction are high. NMBU has already stopped hiring people, and after cutting staff here and there, this might have consequences for the research groups, what classes are offered and the teaching.
During the interview with rector Fjellheim and managing director Holm, they were asked what a simple student could do to help. Rector Siri answered slightly jokingly that you could sign up for extra credits if you wanted to help. The number of credits passed by the students can increase the funding from KD. But the most important message from rector Siri is to get involved in courses, student environment and NMBU as a whole.
Want to know more about the process?
If you are a very engaged student and want to know more about this process, I suggest you watch the meetings for staff and students at NMBU at SharePoint, and read the articles at Khrono.
