The Iowa Board of Regents will only ask for the University of Northern Iowa to get more general university funds in fiscal year 2026. (Logo taken from the Iowa Board of Regents)
Documents from the Iowa Board of Regents show that two of the state universities in Iowa will not ask for any extra general education dollars for the next budget year.
According to the state appropriations request that the board of regents will talk about next week, the University of Northern Iowa will ask for an extra $2.5 million in general university funds for fiscal year 2026. The University of Iowa and Iowa State University will not ask for any more general funds than they did in fiscal year 2025.
The UI will ask for about $223.5 million, ISU will ask for almost $178.5 million, and UNI will ask for about $104.4 million in general university appropriations. If accepted by the regents, the total will be $506.3 million.
For fiscal year 2025, each university’s general education budget went up by 2.5%, which is equal to $12.3 million instead of the $14.8 million that was asked for.
The document said that UNI would use these extra funds to “support efforts to differentiate UNI tuition from that of research intensive universities.”
The paper said, “State’s investment is crucial to keeping a four-year degree within reach for Iowans.”
Each university is also asking the state for money to start or grow special programs, such as partnerships with community colleges and health care and economics projects for rural areas. All of these requests are tied together by the theme of “service to Iowans.”
Iowa State College
For its rural health care program, the UI is asking for $10 million in fiscal year 2026. They plan to ask for more money in the following years, for a total of $50 million. Together with the state, Iowa’s Rural Health Care Partnership would work to improve the state’s health care staff and make it easier for people all over the state to get education and training. The program will also try to improve the health of people in rural Iowa, especially their basic care, mental health, and maternal health, the document says.
The university also wants the state to give money for economic development to its John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and nurse innovation program.
The document said that the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center would give $200,000 of its request directly to entrepreneurs. This would help Iowa-based startups in their early stages by giving them money and supporting student internships at startups and businesses. It would also help rural towns by giving them more resources.
The center’s venture school training program and Hawkeye Ventures Fund will each get the remaining $50,000. The venture school will be expanded to two new sites with $25,000 of the money, and the rest will go to supporting a financial analyst, student interns, and marketing for the ventures fund.
Iowa State College
The paper from the board of regents says that ISU wants more money for its agricultural experiment station and its extension and outreach service so that it can help Iowa’s rural economy.
If the plan is accepted, the university will ask for an extra $3.75 million for the experiment station and an extra $1 million for the outreach service. The document says the money would help with economics and policy in the agriculture sector, as well as technological progress, workforce and business.
The paper said, “While the need for science and technology in Iowa agriculture keeps growing, Iowa State’s ability to keep up has decreased.” “The university’s ability to keep addressing farmers’ and agribusinesses’ long-standing and new concerns and to come up with new ways to make rural communities strong and successful is at risk.”
The university also wants $4 million to set up a manufacturing pipeline and $1 million to create grants for its early acceptance program for veterinary students. The scholarships would cover in-state fees for students who enter the College of Veterinary Medicine through the ISU Production Animal – Veterinary Early Acceptance Program and agree to work in rural Iowa for at least five years after they graduate.
MakeIowa, the manufacturing program, will open four hubs across Iowa in collaboration with area schools. These hubs will improve manufacturing training centers to offer training in new technologies and work with schools to create new degree pathways. The paper also said that the college would find ways for students to use these hubs for jobs in the area.
ISU also wants an extra $36,005 in economic development funds for its Biobased Products, Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, and Digital and Precision Agriculture bioscience platforms so that they can be funded at the $3 million a year level that was agreed upon in 2017. The document also says that the university wants $250,000 in economic development state funds to help staff and processes that focus on entrepreneurship.
ISU is the only university asking for more money for agriculture and natural resources. It wants an extra $1.5 million for its veterinary diagnostics lab and an extra $250,000 for study into livestock diseases.
College of Northern Iowa
Because of growth and need, federal funding for UNI’s UNI@IACC program is expected to run out by the end of 2025. To make up for this, UNI is asking the state for $1.63 million for the program, which lets students with an associate’s degree from a partner community college earn their bachelor’s degree from UNI remotely.
The paper said that UNI@IACC has “nearly doubled in size” since it began in 2022. Future Ready Iowa scholarships were made possible by federal funds given at the start of the program. They help students pay for both their community college fees and their tuition at UNI. These scholarships are open to about half of the students in the school, but more money is needed to keep them open.
Additionally, UNI wants to open a center for political education and needs $1 million to do so. The document was made in reaction to instructions from the board of regents. It said the center would offer educational materials on free speech and civic knowledge, create strategies for learning civics, and promote “respectful dialogue across differences.” The center would improve civic education for everyone, from K–12 to college. It would also help teachers and the people.
The document said, “It will serve the state of Iowa by putting free speech and civic education at the center of its activities. It will also promote the values of free speech, civic leadership, public service, and citizenship.”
The school also wants $3 million in economic development funds so that students from bordering states can pay the same tuition and fees as students from Iowa. This is because, according to the document, 40% of UNI grads from bordering states stay in Iowa after they graduate.