Revenue
With a total revenue of €728 million, WUR has quite some money to spend. Main sponsor is the Dutch government that finances the university with at least €226million worth of education subsidies. €157 million is spent by the ministry of agriculture (LNV) and the Dutch food authority (NVWA). €38 million comes from the student tuition fees.
Spending the money
It is not easy to spend all that money. And they also did not manage. In 2019, WUR booked a net result of €34,9 million. Most money was spent on employees. In December 2019, 6358 people were employed at WUR. Assumably a lot of money was spent on free drinks around campus. Presumably this is called specific and general expenses and cost the uni around €185 million every year.
Increasing corporate ties
Over the last years, corporate investments have steadily grown, accounting for over 10% of the WUR total revenue. The amount of articles that have been co-authored by corporate partners has doubled in the last two years.
Income of the Headmistress
How much money does the head mistress of WUR earn? Well, first there is the salary of €194.000, then there’s a reimbursement for representation cost, that includes clothes, or make-up etc. Lastly there’s the travel costs. Surprisingly the travel costs for abroad travel are not that high: a mere €11.000 euro. Inland travel however is not for free. With €24.000 euro per year, we assume Louise Fresco is not traveling by public transport. This is of course only the money she receives from the WUR, she has some side jobs too. Did you know she’s also in the advisory board of the Amsterdam Zoo?
Lucrative side-job
A full time job is not always so appealing, that why WUR also has some lucrative part time jobs. One specific professor was well rewarded for his 0.3 fte appointment. On top of his agreed salary of €53.489 the prof got some extra €9.127 to bring his total for 2019 to €62.616 for 0.3 fte!). Is that legal? No, in the Netherlands you are not supposed to make more money than the PM. This professor did, so probably they made an exception?
