Radboud University had much better financial results than expected in 2020. Instead of the planned €8 million loss, the balance came out at minus €1.2 million. This is stated in the University’s annual report, which was published this week.

This is the first time in three years that Radboud University has negative financial results. In both 2018 and 2019, the University concluded the year with a profit of more than €10 million. This was grist to the mill for the politicians in The Hague, who were of the opinion that universities were too stingy with their money. ‘We will do our best to achieve negative exploitation results by spending money on teaching, research and buildings,’ the then financial director Peter Bosman responded in an interview with Vox in late 2019.

And this is precisely what happened last year, even though the deficit is much lower than predicted in the budget, which was formulated before the pandemic. This lower deficit is surprising, as Vice President of the Executive Board Wilma de Koning said last May that the COVID-19 pandemic could also affect the University financially. ‘It’s a story of plusses and minuses, and we expect the minuses to be much more substantial.’

More windfalls than setbacks

The COVID-19 pandemic did indeed result in more expenses than windfalls in 2020, according to the annual report calculations. The net costs of the pandemic for Radboud University amount to €8.1 million. These unexpected expenses did not however result in great budget overruns, due to the fact that the University had more windfalls than setbacks in 2020, both in income and in expenditures.

For example, the growing student numbers led to more income from tuition fees than expected. Also, the government contribution increased by €18.2 million, among other things thanks to sector-based funding for science and technology.

On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic did mean that the University earned almost €23 million less than budgeted from work for third parties. And the closing down of the catering services also led to reduced income. In total, €614 million euro was transferred to the University’s bank accounts in 2020, €12 million less than budgeted.

Rental of De Vereeniging

The fact that the net loss ultimately did not exceed €1.2 million is due to the financial costs also being lower than expected: 616 million euro as opposed to 635 million. This too was partially due to the pandemic, which on the one hand led to additional costs – such as the rental of lecture halls like De Vereeniging for €0.7 million euro – but on the other hand also allowed for substantial savings, including €5.7 million euro worth of catering ingredients, thanks to canteens being closed for months on end. Travelling expenses were also €5 million euro lower than expected, and there was less outsourcing of services.

In the end, both income and expenses ended up being higher than in 2019, €10.7 million and €22.7 million respectively.