Erasmus University cuts programs, reduces staff due to education funding shortfall
Erasmus University is eliminating academic programs, halting sustainability initiatives, and reducing staff as part of a sweeping cost-cutting plan driven by government budget cuts and rising operational expenses. The university must save 48 million euros by 2030, including 15 million euros in both 2025 and 2026, Rijnmond reports.
The measures follow the Dutch government's decision to cut over 1 billion euros from higher education funding. Erasmus University expects a 39 million euros shortfall due to the cancellation of national start-up and incentive grants for junior faculty, and an additional 75 million euros is at risk if the institution is forced to scale back international programs under new legislation.
University administrators say the cuts will directly affect education quality, research, and staff workloads. "Education and research are crucial to tackling major societal challenges," a university spokesperson said. “The pressure on universities is growing.”
The Rotterdam School of Management must restructure to save 7.8 million euros. The Erasmus School of Law is merging tutorial groups to save 2 million euros. The university has already canceled its bachelor’s and master’s programs in Fiscal Economics. The bachelor’s degree will be discontinued in 2026–2027; the master’s program in 2028–2029.
Enrollment in Fiscal Economics has declined nationwide, but Erasmus students say the cancellation still came as a surprise. “It’s a shame,” one student told Rijnmond. “We’re one of the few universities that still offered this.”
Several sustainability projects have been halted. A former employee who worked on such a project for four years said the initiative was terminated without notice. “Our project was canceled with a single pen stroke,” she told Erasmus Magazine.
The university says most sustainability efforts are on pause temporarily and will resume in 2026, but multiple staff members reportedly dispute that. Professor Derk Loorbach, director of the DRIFT research institute, said the cuts are damaging key long-term programs. “They say, ‘It was only temporary anyway,’ but this means knowledge and effort disappear,” he told Rijnmond.
The university is also affected by the government’s “Internationalization in Balance Act,” which seeks to limit English-language programs. If Erasmus is forced to scale back, it could allegedly lose an estimated 75 million euros in public funding.
The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague has lost a key grant program for African students. “The government canceled it, and there’s nothing replacing it,” ISS rector Ruard Ganzevoort told Rijnmond.
If student enrollment holds steady, the university expects a shortfall of about 60 study places until the new Tinbergen building opens in 2027.
University leaders warn the cuts will harm the Netherlands’ ability to retain academic talent and conduct essential research. In a joint report, Erasmus president Annelien Bredenoord and other European scholars warned of long-term damage to Dutch science. Bredenoord called the situation a “perfect storm” of rising costs, declining revenue, and lost funding.
