Aalto University begins statutory negotiations

Aalto University will begin statutory employer-employee negotiations concerning its entire personnel, excluding professors. The aim is to adapt the university operations in the weakened economic situation in a manner that allows securing the future for teaching, research and innovation activities in the long term.

- Major changes have been made at Aalto University during its first years and our results have developed very well. This has required a lot of work and expertise from our personnel. Regardless of the good results, the university's financial situation is extremely difficult, as the Finnish Government has decided to significantly cut the funding for universities, says Tuula Teeri, President of Aalto University.

The Government will cut the funding for Aalto University by around 66 million euros by the end of the year 2018. Among others, the cutbacks are comprised of cuts to the funding of the Ministry of Education and Culture for the university as well as cuts that apply to Tekes funding.

- We have already previously focused our resources on research and teaching and made our operations more efficient. Regrettably, the completed savings measures are not enough on their own. The aim is to realise a significant portion of the cost savings by reducing facility and procurement costs, but unfortunately we estimate that savings measures concerning personnel are unavoidable, says Tuula Teeri.

The university aims to balance its finances by increasing funding from other sources and by cutting down costs. The goal is to seek additional funding, for instance, by increasing competitive research funding and using returns from the endowment. Required savings have been estimated to amount to 37 million euros, out of which over half will be sought by reducing facility and procurement costs. Required savings in personnel expenses have been estimated to amount to around 17 million euros.

Around 4 100 people, that is the entire personnel excluding professors, will be within the scope of the negotiations. In total, around 4 600 persons work at Aalto University.  The preliminary estimate is that personnel cuts could affect a maximum of 350 people.

- This is a tough situation for our personnel, but it is important for us to take care of the preconditions for our core activities as our funding is reduced. Our aim is that the currently proposed measures will allow us to accomplish savings corresponding to the cuts targeting us at the moment and that no further savings measures would be necessary, notes Tuula Teeri.

Further information and media contacts via Aalto University Communications, communications specialist Eeva Lehtinen, tel. +358 50 321 7034, eeva.lehtinen@aalto.fi