Dear colleagues

You are probably already aware that on 18 December 2013 the University Board approved the budget for 2014 and the years ahead, ensuring that the AU budget will balance from the year 2015 onwards. Aarhus University needs to make total savings corresponding to DKK 200 million in 2015.

The final budget figures for 2014 for the Faculty of Arts were announced last week, and have since been discussed by the Faculty Liaison Committee. The budget is based on an unchanged level of activity and costs in relation to 2013.

As revealed in my comment on 28 November, at that time we had not yet calculated the budget for 2014 for the Faculty of Arts. We only knew that savings of DKK 16.8 million were needed. The final budget for 2014 shows that the faculty actually needs to make cuts amounting to DKK 22.6 million to reach its budgetary target of -DKK 3 million in 2014.

After a meeting with the Faculty Liaison Committee on 8 January, the Faculty Management has decided that the cuts should be distributed as follows in 2014:

• Department of Culture and Society: DKK 6 million
• Department of Aesthetics and Communication: DKK 4.6 million
• Department of Education: DKK 6 million
• Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media: DKK 1.9 million
• Graduate School: DKK 1.8 million
• Dean’s Office: DKK 0.1 million
• Buildings Operation and Maintenance: DKK 1.8 million
• Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation: DKK 0.5 million

The Faculty Management decided that the Department of Aesthetics and Communication should be required to save less than the Department of Culture and Society and the Department of Education. This is because the Department of Aesthetics and Communication has fewer tenured academic positions than the other two departments, but a similar level of turnover. The cuts in the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation were decided by the University Management Team because the centre is funded by all four main academic areas.

During the past few days the cuts have been discussed by the local liaison committees at the Faculty of Arts. Based on these discussions, and during the next few weeks, the managers of our departments and centres will be drawing up a concrete plan for how these cuts can be implemented. The managers of your departments and centres will be informing you about this process today.

At the moment I cannot say whether the plan will result in redundancies at the Faculty of Arts. The same procedure will be adopted by the entire university: any members of staff who the university intends to make redundant will be informed of the fact on 24-26 February.

I am aware that it seems like a long time before the final consequences of the cuts will be announced. You are all welcome to contact your immediate superior if you have any questions or concerns.

I will also be attending the five New Year meetings at the Faculty of Arts. Among other things, we will be discussing adjustments of our internal departmental organisation, the study progress reform and departmental accreditation. But there will also be the opportunity to discuss the 2014 budget.

You might also like to check out the website http://medarbejdere.au.dk/en/strategy/university-finances-2014/front-page/ where you will find all the most important information and announcements about the university’s finances in 2014-2015.

Best wishes
Mette Thunø
Dean