Increased financial aid, new technology featured in UM-Dearborn budget

Greater investment in financial aid, the university’s instructional mission, technology improvements and student engagement programs highlight the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s fiscal year 2020 budget.

The Board of Regents approved the plan Thursday.

The $162 million operating budget includes an 11.4 percent increase in overall existing financial aid programs. The university’s total financial aid investment is nearly $21 million, nearly four times what it was a decade ago.  

“UM-Dearborn remains committed to aligning our budget with the university’s top priorities: maintaining the academic quality of a Michigan degree; doing everything we can to support student success; creating access and opportunity to highly-qualified, talented and motivated students that may lack the means to attend college and ensuring an engaging and productive learning and working environment for our faculty, staff and students,” UM-Dearborn Chancellor Domenico Grasso said. “I am confident that the budget we presented to the regents today will help us achieve all these goals.”

The approved budget includes the university’s highest amount of financial aid support in its history. Financial aid packages will cover, on average, 45 percent of the tuition increase for its neediest students, thanks in part to the recent Victors for UM-Dearborn campaign. The campaign raised $25.6 million for student support. One of the single-largest student support gifts in the entire three-campus campaign was $12.5 million to the Kochoff Scholarship Fund earmarked for Dearborn students.

Technology improvements highlighted in the budget include increased Wi-Fi access across campus and software improvements.

The budget also includes an estimated state appropriation of more than $26 million, a conservative increase of $391,100, or 1.5 percent. The state budget is not expected to be finalized until later this year.

Tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students will increase by 2.9 percent to $13,304 for the full-time lower-division rate, based on 15 credit hours per semester. That’s $374 more than this year’s costs. For upper-division residents, tuition and fees will increase by 3.5 percent to $13,754, or about $464 more than this year.

The budget also contains a 5 percent tuition increase for out-of-state undergraduate students that will increase tuition and fees to $26,420, or about $1,262 more than last year, for full-time lower-division rate.

New tuition rates for graduate students will increase tuition and fees by 5 percent, or about $764, for in-state students and 9.6 percent, or about $2,524, for out-of-state students for the full-time graduate rate.

The cost of tuition and fees for individual students varies by program.