UT System Board of Regents approve FY 2019 budget

The University of Texas System Board of Regents Friday approved a $19.5 billion budget to fund operations at 14 UT academic and health institutions and System Administration for fiscal year 2019, which begins Sept. 1, 2018.

The new budget is about 6.6 percent, or $1.2 billion, larger than the previous fiscal year. The increase is attributed in large part to growth in patient care costs ($505 million), campus enrollment growth and academic and instructional initiatives ($276 million), and research expenditures ($170 million).

“This is a fiscally-sound budget that reflects the size, scope and impact of the 14 UT institutions in their service to Texas,” Chairman Sara Martinez Tucker said. “The focus of this budget is on the institutions, to ensure students receive a world-class education, patients are provided with high quality and innovative health care and Texans benefit from life-changing research.”

Tucker expressed appreciation to Chancellor ad interim Larry Faulkner, who presented the budget request to the board.

“This budget serves more students, provides more care and supports more research than last year,” Faulkner said, noting that “the size, scale and diversity of the UT System exceeds all other higher education systems in the state.”

UT institutions’ impact in Texas – and the nation – is substantial. The UT System is one of the largest systems of higher education, educating more than 235,000 students and employing more than 105,000 faculty, researchers, health care professionals and support staff.

Every year, UT academic institutions award more than one-third of all undergraduate degrees in Texas. UT health institutions confer almost two-thirds of all health professional degrees in the state and also provide health care to hundreds of thousands of Texans. Collectively, UT-owned and affiliated hospitals and clinics accounted for more than 7.8 million outpatient visits and 1.6 million hospital days last year.

UT institutions are also on the front lines of medical research and developing new technologies. Across UT institutions, research and development expenditures total $2.7 billion, the second highest among U.S. public higher education systems. And the UT System is regularly ranked among the top 10 most innovative universities in the world by Reuters and the National Academy of Inventors, based in part on patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

While the UT System’s overall budget has increased, the budget for System Administration actually has decreased, Faulkner said. The 2019 budget for System Administration is $220 million – about 16 percent less than last year – and will fund 696 positions, which is 41 positions fewer than last year. Altogether, System Administration will have trimmed 228 positions – or 25 percent of the total employee count – over the last two years.

As part of the overall budget, Regents approved $35 million of Permanent University Fund bond proceeds for the STARs program, designed to attract and retain the highest quality faculty. In addition, a $3 million allocation from the Available University Fund was authorized for UT Austin’s Texas National Security Network. This brings the network’s total amount of support from the UT System to $21.2 million.

Revenue for the UT System comes from a variety of sources, with tuition and fees representing one of the smallest streams – only 9.3 percent, or $1.9 billion. State appropriations this year account for $2.3 billion, or 11.7 percent, down from 12.5 percent last year. Hospitals, clinics and professional fees fund the largest share of revenue, representing $8.8 billion, or more than 43 percent of the total funding sources.

Also Friday, Regents approved a $1.014 billion distribution from the Permanent University Fund (PUF) to the Available University Fund (AUF). The funding will be allocated to 27 eligible institutions and agencies in the Texas and A&M systems for constitutionally-allowed expenditures.

At UT, the AUF is first used to pay debt service on PUF debt issued to finance capital projects, such as new buildings, land purchases or capital equipment at all 14 UT institutions; it then goes to the flagship UT Austin, where it can be used for operational expenses; and then for System Administration expenses and system-wide initiatives to advance UT institutions.

About The University of Texas System
Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking basic, applied and clinical 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 14 institutions and a projected enrollment of more than 235,000 students, the UT System confers more than one-third of the state’s undergraduate degrees, educates approximately two-thirds of the state’s health care professionals annually and accounts for almost 70 percent of all research funds awarded to public institutions in Texas. The UT System’s operating budget for FY 2019 is $19.5 billion, funded in part by $3.6 billion in sponsored programs from federal, state, local and private sources. With more than 21,000 faculty – including Nobel laureates and members of the National Academies – and nearly 85,000 health care professionals, researchers, student advisors and support staff, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.