The Utah Board of Higher Education today approved its operating and capital budget priorities for Utah’s public colleges and universities for the 2026-27 fiscal year at its meeting on Oct. 2, 2025, in preparation for the 2026 General Legislative Session.

The Board’s adopted budget proposals, developed in partnership with Utah System of Higher Education institutions, reflect responsibilities outlined in Utah Code and Board policy to recommend annual appropriations for systemwide and institutional needs, including employee compensation, mandatory cost increases and other priorities.

The approved FY 2026–27 budget request is designed to be highly flexible and scalable, giving the Governor and Legislature options in what is expected to be a very tight state revenue environment in the coming year. 

“These budget priorities directly support the Board’s commitment to strengthening Utah’s workforce and supporting our colleges and universities in their mission to serve students,” said Danny Ipson, Utah Board of Higher Education member. “They are responsive to public policy issues and the Board’s strategic initiatives, balancing systemwide needs with targeted institutional requests to ensure higher education remains efficient and responsive to the state’s economic and community goals.”

Operating Budget Priorities:

• Systemwide Priorities: Recommended reallocations will support a future systemwide enterprise resource planning platform, AI computing capacity and institutional strategic reinvestment plan implementation. New funding requests will provide for annual compensation increases, performance funding, Talent Ready Utah initiatives and operations and maintenance for newly funded capital projects, among other items.
• Technical Colleges (Conditional on Available State Revenue): $10.7 million in new ongoing funding will help expand high-demand programs experiencing student waitlists and support pre-funding projects at Ogden-Weber and Dixie Technical Colleges.
• Degree-Granting Institutions (Conditional on Available State Revenue): $10.5 million in new ongoing funding will support workforce and strategic initiatives at Utah’s universities, including the University of Utah’s accelerated medical degree program, Utah Valley University’s Olympic Workforce 2034 initiative and Weber State University’s public safety credentialing programs.

The Board adopted a bifurcated request approach, prioritizing system-level items while advancing technical college and degree-granting institutional requests contingent upon the availability of new state resources.

Capital Budget

In accordance with statute, the Board also reviewed and approved FY 2026-27 capital development priorities. In partnership with the Division of Facilities Construction and Management (DFCM), the System has implemented process improvements to strengthen cost transparency and project planning.

Dedicated project requests are to be funded with institutional resources and capital project funds, except for operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.

Approved Dedicated Projects:

• Weber State University: Student Services – North Renovation (Phase 2), $7.9 million; O&M $0
• Utah Tech University: Health Sciences Building & Taylor Remodel Planning & Design, $6.1 million; O&M $0
• Salt Lake Community College: Aviation Maintenance Building, $14.3 million; O&M $225,100
• Bridgerland Technical College: Main Building Partial Remodel, Renovation & Repurpose (Phase 1), at least $3.8 million; O&M $0
• Southwest Technical College: Diesel Technology Program Building, up to $3.5 million; O&M $55,200

Approved Non-Dedicated Capital Priorities, Frozen from the October 2024 Prioritization, Remain:

• Utah State University: Math, Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Analytics Center, $46.6 million; O&M $282,800
• Dixie Technical College: Trades & Technology Building, $66.8 million; O&M $1 million

The Commissioner of Higher Education will submit the Board’s adopted FY 2026-27 operating and capital budget priorities to the Utah Governor’s Office and Legislature for consideration during the 2026 General Session.

For detailed breakdowns of budget priorities, see agenda materials.