The vote on the 2025 budget of Paris Cité University was on the agenda of the Board of Directors which preceded the Christmas holidays. Many other universities have voted on the budget in recent weeks, often with budgets in deficit. In Paris 8, the deficit amounts to 15.6 million euros for the year 2024, at Mirail in Toulouse at 10 million euros, and in Nanterre, without being quantified, the presidency speaks ” significant deficits “. To remedy this, each of these universities is preparing drastic austerity cures.
Although opposed to the Barnier government's budget, the presidency nevertheless claimed, during a conference on December 3, to have already made “efforts” – including budget cuts – to be able to cushion the consequences of a budgetary crisis, while by refusing the normalization of classes for the strike day of December 5. It is clear that this austerity and hypocrite logic continues in the budget planned for 2025.
Thus, during the last board of directors of Paris Cité, the presidency then congratulated itself on having achieved balance, ensuring in the presentation note of the initial 2025 budget, that the latter “ demonstrates the university's ability to respect its budgetary trajectory to achieve balance, while carrying out ambitious and structuring projects for its training and research and innovation activities » et « benefits from the efforts made by the entire university to reduce operating expenses and control the technical decline in old age [l’évolution de la masse salariale du personnel universitaire en fonction du vieillissement, ndlr]. »
Behind the return to “balance”: 24 million budget cuts
THE ” efforts made » in question actually concern the 24 million budget reductions which were applied last year by requiring each faculty (Health, Sciences and Society and Humanity) to reduce their budget by 20% excluding payroll. Thus, nine million euros were deleted from the “operation” part of the budget, and fifteen million from the “investment”. If Paris Cité is in balance unlike other universities, it is because progress has already been made and the violent austerity cure already began last year.
Far from being one-off, the latter will continue in the coming years. The budget note states that: “ The efforts requested from research units and components for their expenditures in 2024 were maintained in 2025, and the 2024 allocation level will be the same. » And this has concrete consequences on employment, working conditions but also study conditions.
Indeed, the discussion on the budget was accompanied by a vote on the “2025 employment campaign”. This proposes the following “saving measures”: “ build the recruitment of teacher-researchers on the principle of a savings target calculated by making the difference between the payroll released by departures and the replacement of these positions by ATER for one year », et « regulate the replacement of BIATSS with regard to the criticality of activities and their impact in terms of continuity of service and reception of users ».
It is therefore a question, on the one hand, of replacing teacher-researchers with ATERs (Temporary Teaching and Research Attachés) and therefore by very precarious contracts, of one year, paid at the minimum wage, with payment delays of several months sometimes. And on the other hand, it is a question of eliminating BIATSS positions or not ensuring their renewal, this is reflected in terms of recruitment: in 2022 the open competitions for BIATSS were 191, and they increased to 100 in 2025, a reduction by half in three years. And this while the services are already exhausted, the secretarial staff cannot cope with the demands of the students, and the situations of burn-out have multiplied in recent years.
Thus, the balance promoted by the presidency is achieved on the backs of the precarious who must keep the university running at full speed, with working and study conditions that continue to deteriorate.
Austerity to better impose businesses on universities
This austerity is imposed by the government through reductions in allocations and increases in expenditure not compensated by the State (such as the increase in energy costs or that of the CAS Pension), pushing towards “self-financing” . This with the aim of accelerating selection and increasing registration fees, eliminating training or intensifying partnerships with the private sector.
And the presidency of Paris Cité, at the forefront of the neoliberal project for the university, has understood this well. She welcomes the “ dynamics of our CAF [Capacité d’auto-financement, soit la capacité d’investir à partir de la trésorerie directement générée par l’activité de l’université, sans décalage de paiement ndlr] ” Who ” should enable the establishment to regain investment capacity in the medium and long term, thus contributing to improving the quality of life and working conditions. » However, these own resources (apart from regional subsidies and others) are those of registration fees (directly paid by students and their families) and research including “non-ANR research service contracts” (712,000 euros), allowing companies to shape an additional part of public research in their interests. Among the sources of income specific to Paris Cité University we also find the Paris Cité University Foundation which structures partnerships with the private sector and companies such as BNP Paribas, AXA, AG2R La Mondiale, Air Liquide, etc.
Austerity aims to impose the neoliberal project of the dominant classes for the university. It is about shaping the universities according to the labor and research needs of employers. And if the UPC presidency marked a superficial opposition to the budgetary attacks promised by the former ESR minister, it is at the forefront of the creation of this neoliberal university.
It is therefore urgent for us, students and staff of the university, to take back control of the fight against austerity. In CA, the Raised Fist voted against the budget and against the precariousness of university workers. But to truly put an end to the ongoing attacks, we must begin now to rebuild a strong student movement, which will transform the general assemblies held last year into a wind of anger and of protest capable of imposing a university other than that which subjects research to the needs and desires of companies and their shareholders.
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