Here & Now

Fast Facts: University Funding

Frederica Freyberg:

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents met Thursday and approved $107 million from the state for outcomes-based funding. Marisa Wojcik tells us more.

Marisa Wojcik:

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents have released a proposal that will request $107 million from the state to expand outcomes-based goals. UW System institutions will receive a portion of the funding based on how well they meet standards for growing student access, graduation rates, contributions to the workforce and operational efficiency. Of the UW System’s total annual budget of $6.3 billion this year, 17.8% came from state dollars and 23.6% came from student tuition. Most of the state funding that the UW System receives, about $1.1 billion, does not rely on outcomes-based metrics. The state contribution to the UW System has been declining since the system was created in 1973. Because of this, the UW System began to rely more on student tuition dollars to make up the difference. Two factors have made this reliance on student tuition dollars difficult for universities to cover costs. The first is student enrollment, which has been declining since 2010 following the recession and hasn’t been able to pick back up. The second is a tuition freeze, put in place by the state legislature in 2015, and is set to be extended an additional two years. State dollars to the UW may be slipping. But the UW System itself contributes $24 billion to the state economy and supports 167,000 jobs annually according to a recent Board of Regents’ study. For these and other Fast Facts, visit wpt.org.