News Story

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 1, 2021) — University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto sent an email to UK students, staff and faculty yesterday with an update on state legislative budget action regarding state funding for UK. Please see the email message below.

Dear Campus Community,

The 2021 session of the General Assembly officially came to an end late last night and with that legislators completed their work on a state budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

For the University of Kentucky, the news is good, and we are deeply appreciative of the work of policymakers in continuing their commitment to higher education. Here are the details:

• UK will receive $266.2 million next year — July 2021 through June 30, 2022 — from the state in support of the essential work we do. That amount includes $80.6 million for mandated programs such as extension services, the University Press and the Kentucky Cancer Registry and $1.3 million for debt service on $14 million of State Bonds to improve the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging/Neurosciences Facilities.
• In addition to that base appropriation, policymakers have appropriated about a 2 percent increase — $17.3 million — toward a performance funding pool in which all state universities and KCTCS compete for funding. The performance funding program for the universities measures progress in critical areas such as the advancement of students toward degrees, credit hours earned, and bachelor’s degrees awarded to low-income and underrepresented minority students and bachelor’s degrees awarded in specific areas including Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Health (STEM+H).
• UK also will receive additional investments in cancer and spinal cord and head injury research funding that will be split with the University of Louisville.

The investment in the state’s performance funding model is particularly noteworthy. UK has done exceptionally well under this model in recent years, and we anticipate that will continue this coming year. That performance is thanks solely to you: the work of our faculty, staff and students across the campus.

You’ve helped our students succeed and graduate at historically high levels. You’ve ensured that we are more diverse as a campus than at any time in our history. And you’ve worked to prepare our students for the jobs and work so critical to Kentucky’s present and future economy. That’s what the performance funding model rewards. And that is the exceptional performance, the result of hard and tireless work, that you sustain year in and year out.

Now, with the state budget for next year in place, we will begin the work of finalizing the university’s budget for next year, which our Board of Trustees will consider at its June meeting. We still have much to do, but we are optimistic about the continued progress we can make. We can accelerate as an institution as we emerge from the incredible challenges of the past year.

We can do this because of you. I want to, again, thank our policymakers for their continued commitment to this institution. And I want to thank you for all you do to make this community so vital to the state we are called to serve.

Thank you.

Eli Capilouto