Time To Scrutinize UVA’s Budget

In December, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors will be called upon to approve another round of tuition and fees increases. As always, the UVA administration will contend that a UVA undergraduate education offers great value. If past is prologue, it also will argue that it has striven heroically to rein in costs but still needs to extract more revenue from students to carry out UVA's mission.

Hopefully, the Board of Visitors will take a peek at UVA's 2022-23 annual report, the latest published, before reaching any decision.

Here are key statistics derived from data in the report that board members need to keep in mind.

UVA generated $21 million more in tuition and fees revenue in 2022-23 than the previous year, reaching $690. The 3.1 percent increase in revenue slightly exceeded inflation (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) of 2.9 percent.

Viewed in isolation, that doesn't sound terribly unreasonable. But consider that the purpose of state aid to Virginia's public colleges and universities is to hold tuition down for in-state undergraduate students. In the 2022-23 fiscal year, the Commonwealth of Virginia boosted aid to Virginia by 28 percent to $276 million, making up for previous shortfalls which UVA had used to justify past tuition increases.

A $60 million injection into UVA coffers, if applied to cutting tuition across the board, would have been sufficient to lower charges to UVA students by 8.7 percent — and far more if targeted to in-state undergraduates.

UVA also saw a 10 percent increase in gifts — $21 million more in 2022-23, reaching a total of $232 million. Donations typically have strings attached, so UVA can't always spend that money the way it would like, but many of the gifts were dedicated to financial aid which should have eased the pressure to jack up tuition. About 24 percent of tuition goes to financial aid. An increase in scholarship dollars means UVA's financial aid program sucks less money out of tuition revenue.

The 2023-24 academic year has passed since the 2022-23 report. Having the most up-to-date data might modify our analysis. But these numbers, as dated as they are, provide ample grounds for the Board of Visitors to contest more tuition increases.

Past UVA boards have passively accepted whatever numbers the administration dished out to them. The Jefferson Council is hopeful that the new board, dominated 13-to-4 by appointees of Governor Glenn Youngkin, will take a more assertive approach to cost control and tuition increases.

James A. Bacon is the founder of Bacon’s Rebellion and a contributing editor with The Jefferson Council.