Regents approve plan to provide more support to campus presidents and keep student tuition flat

AUSTIN – The University of Texas System Board of Regents unanimously approved an unprecedented plan that will provide even more support to academic campuses than they would have received through requested tuition increases for in-state students.

In May, the Board of Regents unanimously voted against raising in-state tuition at the system’s nine academic institutions but directed Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., and Executive Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs Scott Kelley to develop a proposal to provide campuses with at least as much support as their proposed tuition increases would have generated.

The proposal approved by the Board of Regents on Thursday (Aug. 21) will send $28.2 million in additional recurring funding from the Available University Fund (AUF) to UT Austin and shift audit functions and the cost of certain other System-wide insurance programs, digital library services and information technology at UT’s eight other academic campuses to the UT System. This will free up more than $31 million for the institutions, providing an additional $13 million in recurring support over the $18 million in projected revenue that would have resulted solely through that proposed tuition increases.

See previous news release for more details on the tuition proposal.

About The University of Texas System

Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking research and serving the needs of Texans and the nation for more than 130 years, The University of Texas System is one of the largest public university systems in the United States, with nine academic universities, six health institutions and a fall 2013 enrollment of more than 213,000. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state’s undergraduate degrees, educates two-thirds of the state’s health care professionals annually and accounts for almost 70 percent of all research funds awarded to public universities in Texas. The UT System has an annual operating budget of $14.6 billion (FY 2014) including $3 billion in sponsored programs funded by federal, state, local and private sources. With about 90,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.