Reorganisation at Rotterdam School of Management should cut back 5.5 million euros

The Rotterdam School of Management is facing a reorganisation due to serious financial difficulties. For 2025, the business faculty expects a deficit of 7.2 million euros. The reorganisation plan aims to reduce that to 1.7 million. It is not yet clear how the faculty plans to achieve this or whether jobs will be lost in the process.

The ‘Future Proof Plan’, as it is called, was revealed in a presentation by the RSM board during a faculty council meeting. The financial problems at the RSM partly stem from government cuts to higher education. In addition, the government is restricting the provision of international programmes. It is not yet clear how this will affect the faculties, but it could remove a significant source of income for many, adding to the financial problems. The RSM has a lot of international students.

Make choices

For nearly a year, discussions at the RSM have focused on the major financial challenges facing the faculty. “We need to make choices about how we can free up capacity within our education system and consider which services we want to provide within the RSM”, Daniël Feenstra, director Finance Control & Risk, said in April last year.

During the faculty council meeting in October, the Director of Operations Myra van Esch stated that the ‘Future Proof’ cost-cutting plan was under review by various parties, including the University Council, and that discussions were ongoing. In the minutes of the meeting, it says that ‘there are concerns about how the planned cuts might affect core services, and discussions continue about balancing budget requirements with maintaining the essential operations’, which refer to education and research. In the November faculty council meeting, the board stated that the cost-cutting plan was expected to be finalised by the end of 2024.

Social plan

So far, the plan has not been presented. An RSM spokesperson said that the board is consulting and working closely with the faculty council, the University Council, and the Erasmus Labour Council (ELC) on revisions to the plan. “We expect these discussions to continue for a few more months.” The ELC says that they haven’t seen the expected reorganisation plan yet. “At ELC, we are waiting to hear about the reorganisation plan, to start looking into a potential social plan”, says representative Ana Uribe Sandoval. The social plan will serve to protect the people that potentially lose their job.