Budget

Our budget reflects our momentum and our steadfast commitment to the success of our people and the future of our state.

Our ability to provide raises, to expand leave options, to keep tuition increases to the lowest levels in a generation, to reduce students’ unmet financial need, and to expand efficiency and effectiveness is the result of the tireless work of so many people within the budget office and other areas in Finance and Administration, as well as in the Office of the Provost.

We begin a new fiscal year with a budget that embodies our community’s distinctive characteristics: an unwavering commitment to service and support, as well as a fierce determination to expand what’s possible for the University of Kentucky.

Budget Breakdown

The University of Kentucky’s budget is comprised of three fund groups: general (designated & undesignated), auxiliary and restricted. Each fund group includes specific revenues, expenses, and transfers and is budgeted so that it has a zero balance: Revenues + Transfers In – Transfers-Out = Expenses.

Designated General Funds are received directly by the colleges and units that generate or earn the funds. The colleges and units use the funds in accordance with their missions and to maintain self-sustaining activities.

Undesignated General Funds are received and managed centrally and the associated expenditure authority is allocated to the colleges and units as base support for education, research and creative work, and service. The budget decisions related to the university’s educational and general activities are based on the availability of these undesignated funds.

Auxiliary Fund revenues are generated from the sale of goods and services to faculty, staff and students. Revenues are expected to cover the operating expenses of each auxiliary enterprise.

Restricted Funds are provided by governmental agencies, corporations, and private donors, these funds are accepted by the university with explicit restrictions imposed by the external entity. The primary sources of Restricted Funds are sponsored projects, such as grants and contracts, gifts that must be spent in support of a specific program, and federal and state student financial aid. As a steward of the funds, the university has a legal obligation to abide by the fund restrictions.

2022-2023 Budget Highlights

The $5.6 billion budget for the University of Kentucky for 2022-2023 continues a five-year trend of holding down costs for students, while significantly increasing investments in financial aid and initiatives that will advance the state.

In fact, increases in tuition and mandatory fees of 2% will mean that the average increase in those numbers over the last four years will be 1.6% – far below inflation and several percentage points below average annual increases a decade ago.

Investing in Students

In terms of continued efforts to hold down costs, Kentucky undergraduate students would pay $6,429.50 in tuition and mandatory fees for the fall 2022 semester, up from $6,305 in fall 2021.

Those costs will be offset, in large measure, by a record $160 million in financial aid that doesn’t have to be repaid.

By way of context, in 2021, more than 90% of full-time, resident, undergraduate students received financial aid; 25% of full-time undergraduate students from the state came from families where the median family income was a little more than $24,000.

Those students received $4,326 in aid over and above tuition and mandatory fees. The boost in aid was fueled this past year by increased federal funding resulting from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF).

Investing in People

The budget provides the ninth pay increase for UK employees in the last 10 years. At more than $17 million, UK is doubling the average of the last 10 years in investments in pay increases.

UK also is holding down health care costs and creating expanded benefits after consultation with staff leaders. The budget also includes additional increased stipends for graduate students that can be matched by colleges.

Investing in the places where learning and work happens

Over the last decade, UK has invested nearly $3 billion in infrastructure across the campus. Over the next three years alone, UK is likely to invest another $1 billion. During this period, the UK campus – from classrooms to research spaces, from health care facilities to athletics venues – has been transformed and more strategically positioned to expand its missions of education, research, service and care.

Yet, even with the dramatic expansion of investments, UK’s debt service will represent only 2% of the institution’s adjusted budget.