The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education voted Thursday to request an additional investment in public higher education to support student success, workforce needs alignment, and system efficiency initiatives. For FY28, the State Regents request an increase of $80.7 million in strategic operational funding, or 7.7%, over the FY27 appropriation.
“Our FY28 budget request reflects our ongoing commitment to shared services, innovation, and accountability,” said State Regents’ chair Courtney Warmington. “Increased investment in allocations under the State Regents’ new performance funding formula and other key initiatives will empower the state system of higher education to grow the student pipeline and meet changing workforce needs.”
Public higher education’s budget request includes $35 million for allocation through the new performance funding formula to increase student enrollment, support student retention and progression programs, meet workforce demands in Oklahoma’s critical occupations, and address operational needs at public colleges and universities.
The State Regents seek $15 million in FY28 to fund a competitive account for awards to incentivize campus expansion of research projects, academic and operational innovations, and economic development programs.
The budget request also includes $21.2 million to offset increasing employee health benefits costs at the institutions and $9.5 million for shared services, system efficiency efforts, and campus safety and cybersecurity needs.
To fund legislative initiatives and programming, the State Regents request an increase of $50 million for FY28 for the Oklahoma National Guard Educational Assistance Program, Oklahoma Rising Scholars Award, and Oklahoma’s Promise and to expand concurrent enrollment. In addition, the FY28 budget request includes one-time deferred maintenance allocations of $75 million to continue campus system upgrades and infrastructure projects.
“Increasing college degree completion in Oklahoma’s critical occupations remains public higher education’s top priority,” said Chancellor Sean Burrage. “This thoughtful budget request fosters continued focus on student engagement and success, institutional efficiencies, and critical deferred maintenance needs at our state system colleges and universities.”
Supporting campus research capacity and partnerships is also a priority for the State Regents in the upcoming legislative session. Research conducted by colleges and universities plays a vital role in driving a state’s innovation, economic growth, and public well-being. The State Regents support legislation that creates additional opportunities and provides resources to our public institutions to serve as hubs of discovery, generating new knowledge and technologies that can lead to breakthroughs in healthcare, agriculture, energy, and more.
Another legislative priority for public higher education is refining the Inspired to Teach scholarship and employment incentive program to increase the scholarship amount and provide stipend support for the required student teaching segment during the degree-earning process.