Publication of the UG 2023 Annual Report

The UG’s Annual Report for 2023 is now available online. It gives an account in words and figures of the policy pursued by the University of Groningen in the 2023 calendar year and of how the government funding was spent. Much attention was paid to the policy of making various connections with society and the region. A high-profile event was the festive opening of the House of Connections in the former V&D building at the Grote Markt in June 2023. This houses the UG’s four schools for Science and Society and the University of the North (UvhN). It is the central meeting place to explore societal themes, where students, lecturers, researchers, networks, and citizens can come together to learn from and inspire each other.

Similar to 2022, inflation and developments in energy prices had a major impact on the results and reserve position of the UG. Measures were taken to gradually offset the deficits anticipated for the coming years to create a sustainable balance of expenditure. To this end, the ‘TeRUG in balans ‘26’ programme [Back to balance ’26] has been created. During 2023, it became clear that the target had to be increased because the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science imposed an annual cut in student number related funds. In 2023, the UG also faced a 9% increase in collective labour agreement wages that was only partially compensated by the Ministry. As a result, the annual deficit is currently €22 million. Both developments result in an additional structural change task and target.

Other areas covered in the report — besides developments in the field of teaching, research, and impact — are knowledge safety, social safety, cyber security, privacy, and internationalization. An important development is the Internationalization in Balance (WIB) Act, which aims, among other things, to control the intake of international students. The UG has already taken steps last year by discontinuing the active recruitment of international students, which had an effect on the intake of international Bachelor’s and Master’s students in the current academic year. No major changes have yet occurred in student numbers. The number of students remained almost at the same level of approximately 34,000, and the proportion of international students showed a slight increase from 27.2% to 27.7%.

View the Annual Report of 2023 here.