The Board of Regents approved UM-Dearborn’s $180 million fiscal year 2027 general fund budget proposal at its June 25 meeting.
The FY27 budget allocates $28.5 million in Go Blue Guarantee and other institutional financial aid. Through these and other sources, 41% of full-time, in-state UM-Dearborn undergraduates –- 2,008 students — received enough scholarships and grant aid to fully cover their tuition and fees in 2025-26. The vast majority — 73% — of these students were covered by the Go Blue Guarantee. With the University of Michigan’s recent expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee to include Michigan families with annual incomes up to $125,000, 374 additional students were eligible for the scholarship last academic year. Other sources of aid include non-institutional funding like the Michigan Achievement Scholarship and Pell Grants.
The budget includes an undergraduate tuition increase of 3.9%, equating to $312 for in-state students and $672 for out-of-state students, per semester. The increase is below Michigan’s tuition restraint amount of 4.0%. Increases for many students are expected to be offset by the university’s expanded full-tuition assistance programs.
The university anticipates a 13.6% decrease in graduate students next academic year as a result of ongoing barriers to international student enrollment, as well as a flat state appropriation. Meanwhile, costs for goods and services, most notably health insurance, continue to increase. As a result of these factors, the university’s FY27 budget required $5 million in reductions to balance the budget. Chancellor Gabriella Scarlatta and the university’s leadership team began working on contingency plans over a year ago to ensure the budget remained balanced despite the current challenges. Measures put in place include strategic cuts, averaging 4%, across all colleges and units, as well as an extra level of review for the posting of vacant positions and reinstatement of the one-time orientation fee for all new undergraduates, which had been paused since the pandemic.
Melissa Stone, vice provost for enrollment management, points to many new initiatives designed to boost domestic student enrollment and, ultimately, offset the international student decline. These include a new Great Lakes Scholarship, which provides in-state tuition for students from Ontario and states bordering the Great Lakes, as well as several new community college transfer agreements.
“Many Michigan students are taking advantage of the state’s new free community college initiative. With nine new transfer agreements and counting, we are poised to help those students seamlessly transfer to UM-Dearborn once they obtain their associate degree,” Stone said.
The budget also includes a one-time, 1% payment for all regular, non-bargained-for faculty and staff hired prior to February 1, 2026. The amount will be prorated for those with less than a full-time appointment.
Scarlatta said the budget is fiscally responsible and responds to challenges shared by peer institutions. “Our FY27 budget reflects the current fiscal reality at UM-Dearborn, as well as at many other universities across Michigan,” she said. “We have been proactively planning for over a year for the drop in international students and the potential for a flat allocation from the state. We’ve produced a budget that accounts for these factors, while maintaining affordability for our students and ensuring long-term institutional sustainability. We will continue to move promising enrollment initiatives forward, while remaining focused on our mission to deliver a world-class, accessible college education and make a meaningful impact in our local community.”
Story by Kristin Palm
