Obliged to cut into the payroll, the University of Rennes 1 decided a plan to return to the equilibrium which provides for the removal of at least 110 positions. In particular cause? An important real estate heritage expensive in energy. The president, David Alis, is asking for help from the ministry to renovate it.
The University of Rennes 1 removes at least 110 positions, including 28 teacher-researchers and 82 staff, engineers, technicians and administrative .. It's a lot.
Rennes 1 is a research university of world renown, powerful, recognized, attractive. Who has just attracted another 10% more students in first year. Who has just broken into international rankings. And who continues to invest, 18 million euros in annual average. We are one of the biggest investors in the region. And we are also one of the main players, since we have 400 million euros of economic spin-offs on the territory. 1 € invested in Rennes 1, it is almost 4 € of fallout in the Breton economy.
Yet you have to save money ...
We have a deficit of 6 million euros on a budget of nearly 300 million euros. About fifteen universities are in this case. This deficit is due to regulatory increases that impact our payroll each year, which represents 80% of our expenses. In particular, the slippage old age technicality (the payroll of the civil service increases every year because of career development of officials, Ed) was not compensated in 2017 and we had to pay a million euros . We also have to pay one million euros of general social contribution (CSG) every year ... being compensated for only 600 000 €. This forces us to be vigilant about expenses. With all the presidents of universities, we ask the support of the ministry to better accompany us ... otherwise we will not succeed.
The other problem is the important heritage of Rennes 1 ...
Yes, we have more than 370,000 m² of buildings on our Rennes, Saint-Malo, Lannion, Saint-Brieuc and Paimpont sites. This represents more than 5 million euros in fluid costs each year, nearly 2 to 3 million euros in maintenance costs ... We are engaged in a very important plan of energy renovation of buildings. But Rennes and Brittany suffer from a lack of support on this aspect, because if we obtained a digital campus plan, we did not have a real estate campus plan. Here again, the ministry must help us. I made a request in this direction.
The Beaulieu campus is indeed aging ...
There are ultramodern buildings, such as the digital center, Inria, Irisa ... We have just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the physics and chemistry building. However, there are other buildings that I want to renovate. We are lucky to have a beautiful campus. We must continue. We are leader on the digital part. We must also be leaders in the real estate sector.
But all that is not enough, we must also save on staff?
We worked on a plan to return to equilibrium, providing for an effort of 5 million euros on the payroll. This translates into 82 incumbent and contractual staff positions that are not renewed ... out of a total of more than 3,000 employees. But we must still note that we renewed 167 CDD in September. And we recruited 67 new doctoral students for research.
Why do the unions go up there then? They unanimously rejected this plan to return to balance, ensure that the situation is tense ...
Unions and staff are united for our university. We are all very attached to Rennes 1 as the great scientific and technological university of the West. This is a way for them to say that Rennes 1, which has progressed in scientific outreach, which is at the heart of major challenges, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, needs to be accompanied. They also relay our requests so that our specificities are taken into account. I have a lot of recognition for the staff, because in this context, we have obtained results that are out of the ordinary, by obtaining four joint laboratories with companies, more students, more than 10 million euros of contracts Europeans ... There is a collective pride. The call of the trade unions means "Rennes 1 is a magnificent university, a chance for Brittany, for the West ... but it must be better accompanied".
Nevertheless, they refuse your plan.
There are two dimensions in the plan: a modernization plan for which there is a consensus - not unanimous, but still with a majority - to say that any organization must modernize and find new levers of development with the international, continuing education, digital innovation ... After inevitably on the part of return to balance stricto sensu, I did not expect to have unions from the start with me. But it is my role as president to energize the university, to ensure that it is able to meet the challenges and therefore to present this plan.
An event is scheduled for Thursday. You do not fear that the social movement will expand?
Rennes 1 is a responsible university, be it on the staff, elected or student side. This is what characterizes it. And everyone wants his good. After that, we are at a moment when we feel we are making a lot of effort, especially for research and for students; we have a lot of projects; and we want to see them accompanied ... because, once again, Rennes 1 is the scientific and technological showcase of Brittany and West. Digital, environment, health, materials, law, economics and management ... I am with the staff so that we succeed together.
This plan also provides for a 15% decrease in the credits allocated by the university to training and research laboratories, which have already experienced a 25% drop in the last 5 years. It's paradoxical with the development that you put forward.
No component has seen its budget reduced. But I encouraged them all to diversify their resources. More research contracts, more relationship with the industrial and economic world, more alternation and learning ... And the momentum is good.
The unions still point out that the time spent mounting files to respond to calls for projects to find subsidies is all the time lost for research.
I join them. We have moved to a system of calls for projects, with criteria that are not necessarily quality. And there is a need to accompany the major research universities. We are asking for a dedicated envelope, which is not just the call for projects. You can not build a big university just on calls for projects. There is need to consolidate in the long term.