“Six million euros are needed to complete the budget”: the University of Reims warns of its work for 2025

The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA) fears the worst for its 2025 budget.

“If we haven’t taken action on our budget, we may not be able to provide a payroll for November and December 2025.”warns the president of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA), Christophe Clément, in November 27, 2024. The projections made on the 2025 budget would put the economic activity of many universities in France in the danger. President of the University of Montpellier parle “of bankruptcy” and the the president of Lorraine appears “a full cup, that we can hold no more.”

So the University of Reims, which has 34,000 students and has 37 research laboratories, has to reorganize. Its expenses (246.5 million euros) on the 2024 budget are higher than its income (241.3 million euros). Over the year, the university explains that 3.3 million euros of HR measures were not compensated by the State in 2024. That is 8.2 million euros from 2020.

“If these state decisions are upheld, we will be stuck in our 2025 budget”talking to Christophe Clément. He then explains. “We are missing six million euros to achieve a stable budget that can be confirmed by our authorities.” Six million are missing and cannot be compensated with the university’s own funds, since there has already been an increase in costs at their expense for several years. Despite this economic limitation, the president confirmed his desire to preserve the quality of the training for his students and maintain the offer.

However, changes will be made to save 3.3 million euros. Among them, we found:

• A 20% reduction in the overall investment activity of the university.
• Complete closure of activities during holidays with a one week closure period each school term (February, spring and All Saints’ holidays).
• Replacement of workers where some retirements are not compensated.
• A 20% reduction in doctoral funding allowing students to complete their thesis over three years, where it is hoped to save 720,000 euros over three years.
• Reorganization of teaching groups to limit the number of hours.

Then in the mean time, “We do not refuse to close some training courses because at some point, we will no longer be able to provide financial support for all the training courses”says Christophe Clement. He makes sure, however, that he will do everything possible so that he does not reach that point. According to him, four out of five universities in France encounter the same problems and carry out similar measures as Reims.

The teacher at the University of Reims, Alexis Lévrier, for his part, confirms a tense situation. “The State is imposing huge budget cuts on us, which will force us to cancel some of our courses from January. The situation is more revolutionary because the State has spent large sums for unknown training since reform it has been created by private for-profit institutions.

Finally, investment or energy renovation projects on buildings have been postponed until 2026. The University of Reims must submit the projected budget for 2025 on Tuesday, December 3 to the legislature, before an expected response on December 17th.