Government Relations
UW System Background Information
Executive Summary
Browse the contents of the Executive Summary
- About the UW System
- UW System Growth Agenda
- Budget
- Enrollment
- Admission and Credit Transfer
- Financial Aid
- Tuition and Segregated Fees
- Reductions, Efficiences, and Reform
- Research
- UW Personnel
- Contact
About The UW System
Since its creation, the University of Wisconsin System has established itself as one of the world’s premier public university systems. With more than 160,000 students on 26 campuses, and service to more than one million citizens through statewide extension programs, the university is truly a world-class institution of higher education.
The UW System’s campuses in Madison and Milwaukee offer both undergraduate and graduate degree programs, including doctoral and professional programs.
Eleven comprehensive campuses provide students both undergraduate and master’s degree programs in smaller, more individualized academic settings.
The UW System’s 13 UW Colleges deliver freshman-sophomore courses for students seeking a foundation for a bachelor’s degree.
UW-Extension works with all 26 UW campuses, all 72 Wisconsin counties, and a wide variety of other educational partners to bring UW expertise to all corners of the state.
All UW System campuses and UW-Extension programs provide Wisconsin’s citizens with opportunities to contribute to the state’s growing “knowledge economy” through the UW System’s three-pronged mission of teaching, research and public service.
(More information about campuses of the UW System, history and organization of the UW System, and UW-Extension FY2005 contacts and enrollments is available in Section 1.)
UW System Growth Agenda:
A Plan to Grow Wisconsin's Economy and
Quality of Life
The University of Wisconsin System’s Growth Agenda for Wisconsin has three goals:
- Increase the number of Wisconsin residents who have four-year college degrees;
- Use the university’s resources and research capacity to create knowledge-economy jobs to employ graduates and attract more degree holders to Wisconsin;
- Grow the University of Wisconsin’s financial capacity to support more student enrollments.
Through the Growth Agenda, UW institutions plan to address the unique needs of the communities and regions they serve, based on their own institutional strengths. Some proposed initiatives would increase research capacity and contribute more to the development of spin-off companies; others would seek to graduate more students with knowledge-economy strengths for Wisconsin’s workforce.
Financial aid is an investment that will move this state forward, not hold it back. Rising cost of attendance can affect access to the University of Wisconsin, especially among low-income families.
Federal grants, like the Pell Grant, and state grants, such as the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (WHEG), help to defray the cost of a UW education for the neediest students. As part of the Growth Agenda, the UW System will seek to enroll more students from low- and moderate-income families through the proposed Wisconsin Covenant, which would financially assist middle and low-income families in Wisconsin by covering the tuition and fees for Wisconsin students who take challenging courses and achieve high academic standards in high school.
The UW will also invest in retaining and graduating more of the students who do attend, and increase the number of students who graduate into areas of high state need, such as nursing, science, math, and engineering. Collectively, the ideas could allow the UW to add 2,800 new students in the 2007-09 biennium, and an additional 7,700 students over the next six years.
(For more information on the Growth Agenda, turn to Section 2. Section 2 also contains family income data of UW resident new freshmen; and state ranking and percentage of Wisconsin residents with four-year degree data.)
Budget
In 2006-07, the UW System’s annual budget is $4.3 billion. This includes $1 billion in state funding, $910 million in student tuition, and more than $2.3 billion in other sources, including gifts, federal grants, and other private sources. The UW System has an economic impact of more than $9.5 billion in the state of Wisconsin each year.
Not all the funding is available for discretionary use by the Regents to support university programs. Significant amounts are dedicated to specific purposes such as:
- state debt service payments and energy costs;
- federal contractual obligations;
- auxiliary operations for activities such as residence halls, athletics, student centers; and
- gifts and trust income.
Most of the university’s General Purpose Revenue (GPR) budget is provided under three appropriations: general program operations, debt service, and energy costs.
General program operations cover such things as instruction, research, student services, academic support and public service activities.
The university has the ability to combine GPR operations funds with money received from tuition and certain federal indirect cost reimbursements to create a larger pool of funds to run its operation.
(Please see Section 3, UW System 2006-07 Operating Budget. Section 3 shows a history, adjusted for inflation, of the UW System GPR fees and other funds. The graph also shows that in 2005-06, GPR funding is almost at parity with tuition revenue. This section also includes a summary of the 2005-07 biennial budget actions, as well as a historical table that contains state appropriations as a percentage of total UW System annual budgets and a chart showing trends in state tax appropriations for higher education per capita.)
Enrollment
Refer to Section 4 for charts showing the historical profile of headcount enrollment, Fall 1995 to Fall 2005. In 2005, total (also known as headcount) enrollments ranged from 2,826 students at UW-Superior to 40,606 students at UW-Madison.
Most of the changes in enrollment levels over the last 17 years have been the result of four plans approved by the Board of Regents known as Enrollment Management I, II, and III. Since Fall 2001, the UW System has managed enrollment through the Enrollment 21 plan, which is designed to maintain a high, immediate access rate for high school graduates while expanding services to adult students.
When assessing the budgetary or space needs of a campus, the full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment is often a more relevant statistic than headcount.
Also in Section 4 is a map that illustrates student headcount enrollment for fall 2004 by state of origin. In 2005, the UW System enrolled 129,967 students from Wisconsin.
A total of 14,931 students of color were enrolled in the UW System in Fall 2005, comprising 9 percent of the total enrollment. According to the Education Research Center, the percent of the Wisconsin high school graduate student population of color was 20.6 percent.
In 1987 to 1998, the UW System developed a plan to increase diversity and to improve educational quality and access for all UW students. In 1998, the Board of Regents adopted “Plan 2008: Educational Quality Through Racial and Ethnic Diversity” for the succeeding 10-year period.
The plan was recently reviewed in terms of progress made during Phase I of Plan 2008.
Over the first five years of Plan 2008, 2,000 additional students of color enrolled in the UW System, which is equivalent to 25 percent of all enrollment growth for that time period. Despite the increased minority enrollment, the actual service rate, the percentage of minority high school graduates enrolled, fell from 23 percent to 21 percent, because the total number of minority students graduating from high school increased at a faster rate than the number of minority students enrolling in the UW System.
While retention and graduation rates for students of color have increased, they both still remain below those of the student body as a whole.
Progress has been made in several areas, including increasing pre-college programs enrollment, increasing minority faculty and staff, creating an environment that enhances learning and a respect for racial and ethnic diversity, and improving institutional accountability related to measuring and evaluating diversity programs and performance goals.
(Section 4 also includes an informational brief that describes the Freshman Class of 2005. Systemwide, 82 percent are Wisconsin residents; 55 percent are women; 10 percent are students of color; and 46 percent were in the top quartile of their high school classes.)
Admission and Credit Transfer
Admission policies are developed by the individual campuses, taking into account their mission and resources, with guidance from the Board of Regents.
The Admissions policy is outlined in Section 5. This policy is currently under review.
Recently a University of Wisconsin System Admissions Advisory Committee was formed to review the UW System’s undergraduate admissions process, recommend guidelines and models to assist UW institutions in their efforts to follow federal law, serve a diverse population of students, and enhance the educational experience of all students. The Executive Summary is also included in Section 5.
Transfer students represent a significant portion of new enrollments. Approximately 15,000 undergraduates transfer to and within the UW System each year.
In Fall 2003, the Board of Regents endorsed a set of new transfer initiatives with the goal of improving credit transfer from the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) and enhancing student success in pursuit of baccalaureate degrees. These initiatives include:
- a new policy that enables UW institutions to transfer WTCS occupational/technical courses on a course-to-course basis;
- an increase of up to 30 general education course courses that will transfer to all UW institutions;
- continued development of 2+2 degree completion programs between WTCS and UW institutions;
- a credit transfer contract for students to guarantee that their courses will transfer;
- full transfer of WTCS liberal arts degree credits from collegiate transfer programs at Madison, Milwaukee, and Nicolet Technical College; and
- additional options for expanding the number of baccalaureate degree holders in Wisconsin.
(Section 5 refers to the Transfer Information System and Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion recommendations.)
Financial Aid
Overall, 102,825 UW students, or 64 percent of total enrollment, received $767.4 million in financial aid in 2004-05. Compared to 2003-04, the number of financial aid recipients increased by 4,378, while dollars awarded increased by $67.7 million. Nearly two out of three undergraduate students, or 66 percent, received some financial aid, including non-need-based aid, in 2004-05. Of that $767.4 million in financial aid, students received $215.6 million in grant funding; students borrowed $537.1 million in student loans; and UW students received $14.7 million in Federal work-study funding.
Four out of every five financial aid dollars, or 79 percent, to UW students were provided or underwritten through a Federal program. State sources accounted for 8 percent of all aid. UW System campuses provided 5 percent of UW System financial aid; and 8 percent was provided by private or community sources.
Loan aid comprises the largest component of financial aid to UW students. Loan dollars make up 70 percent of total financial aid dollars, and 52 percent of enrolled UW students borrowed in 2004-05, up from 25 percent in the late 1980’s.
At graduation, 64 percent of resident undergraduates had an average loan debt of $18,378.
“The Student Financial Aid Update” in Section 6 provides student financial aid highlights for 2004-05. The data notes that on a yearly basis, the percentage of undergraduate and graduate students receiving some form of financial aid has risen steadily. In the last five years, there has been a sizeable increase in the proportion of UW System undergraduate and graduate students receiving financial aid.
Tuition and Segregated Fees
Tuition and fees for each UW institution
Wisconsin statutes delegate the authority to set tuition to the Board of Regents with some restrictions.
36.27 of the statutes says that the Board of Regents may not increase fees for resident undergraduate students beyond an amount sufficient to fund the following:
- The amount in 20.285(1)(im) for that fiscal year (initiatives approved in the state budget)
- Amount approved for compensation and fringe benefits
- Projected loss in revenue caused by a change in the number of students enrolled
- State imposed costs not covered by GPR
- Distance education, non-traditional courses and intersession courses, and
- Differential tuition.
Section 7 indicates the annual resident tuition fee rates since 1995-96 through 2006-07. The second table shows the changes in the percent of instructional costs covered by tuition. Instructional costs include the portion of faculty pay plan, administration, libraries and student services, and support costs that are directly related to student instruction.
In addition to tuition charges, all students are assessed segregated fees to finance a wide variety of student activities, including parking and transportation services, student activities, student union/center intramural, and intercollegiate athletics. Unlike tuition rates, segregated fees are determined on a campus-by-campus basis according to institutional needs.
The 2006-07 annual operating budget and tuition rates approved by the Board of Regents includes a 6.8 percent tuition increase for resident students. This is equal to $191 per semester at UW-Madison, $187 per semester at UW-Milwaukee, and $145 per semester at comprehensive universities and the UW Colleges. Even with these increases, tuition rates for resident undergraduate students remain substantially lower than resident undergraduate tuition and fees at most other public universities of similar size and mission.
(See Section 7 for Wisconsin tuition relative to peers.)
Nonresident students do not receive a state subsidy, and therefore, pay much higher tuition. Nonresident students pay the full cost of their education and provide a tuition subsidy for resident students.
The UW nonresident rate, including tuition and fees, is $20,726 at UW-Madison, $16,228 at UW-Milwaukee, and $12,880 at the comprehensive campuses. From 2001-02 to 2004-05, UW nonresident enrollment dropped by more than 900 students – a loss of more than $13 million in revenue each year.
As a result of the loss of nonresident students and revenue, the UW Board of Regents recently approved a plan that would reduce tuition rates for nonresident students to be competitive with similar colleges and universities, and attract students and this source of revenue back to UW System. Over time, the additional revenue will provide more access for Wisconsin students.
Reductions, Efficiencies, and Reform
The University of Wisconsin System’s 2006-07 budget included a $20 million GPR administrative efficiency reduction initiated in the Governor’s budget, and an additional $10 million GPR reduction initiated by the Joint Committee on Finance.
The document in Section 8 reports the details of each UW institution’s base budget reductions.
According to the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, the UW System expends 6 percent of its budget on institutional support (which is higher education’s definition of administration) compared to an average of 10.2 percent for 18 comparably sized systems nationally. The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems identifies Wisconsin as one of the top five states having the most productive public baccalaureate and masters institutions relative to their resources, and one of the states having the most productive research sectors.
The UW System has taken a series of recent steps to ensure the best possible stewardship of public resources and restore the public’s trust in its public university system. These include eliminating administrative back-up appointments in the UW System for new hires, requesting a Legislative Audit Bureau audit of UW unclassified staff employment policies and practices, and strengthening the sick-leave policy for UW System unclassified staff. Requiring written certification from a health-care provider of the medical necessity of use of sick leave for absences of more than 5 consecutive days or in cases of suspected abuse, the UW sick leave policy for unclassified staff is now the most stringent of all state agencies.
The Board of Regents appointed a committee to review university rules and policies, and state law, and has recommended changes that will balance due process requirements with the need to act expeditiously in disciplinary matters, particularly those involving criminal activity.
In addition, the UW System has strengthened the internal audit function, has clarified processes and appropriate circumstances for terminating the employment of academic staff, and has worked with UW institutions and the State Office of Employment Relations to develop uniform and consistent policies on conducting background checks for new hires.
In 2003-04, the UW System held public hearings, invited testimony, held discussions with legislative leaders, and solicited public input as part of a study and key findings called “Charting a New Course for the UW System.”
The key findings included recommendations to streamline and further enhance efficiencies, such as:
- Streamlining the capital building program process by modernizing statutes and procedures to match capital budget methods to accepted national practice;
- Wisconsin should create flexibility in the procurement process to permit more efficient purchasing of goods and services directly in the marketplace, and permit the UW System to take advantage of discounts available through higher education consortium contracts; and
- UW System should continue an extensive examination of UW Risk Management programs.
(The Final Report of Charting a New Course for the UW System is in Section 8.)
Research
According to the Wisconsin Technology Council, academic and other research institutions in Wisconsin spent about $883 million on direct research activities in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2002. That spending translated to 31,788 jobs (36 jobs for every $1 million in research and development spending).
Wisconsin ranks 15th among the 50 states with total academic research and development spending of about $806 million from federal, state and private sources. Those figures include $696 million in research and development spending on all UW System campuses in the 2002 fiscal year. UW-Madison received $662 million of those funds, or 95.1 percent.
If not for UW-Madison’s relatively high ranking in academic research and development, Wisconsin would slip out of the top half of all U.S. states in overall research and development spending.
Commercialization of university discoveries and innovation have taken on increasing importance with the advent of WiSys, Inc., a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Both organizations work with all UW System campuses to license the rights of innovations to industry for development in the marketplace.
Wisconsin’s universities are engines of discovery and innovation in science and engineering, advances in agriculture, manufacturing, services and other sectors of the economy. The return on investment in academic research is high; disinvestment could undermine Wisconsin’s competitiveness.
(See Section 9 for the Wisconsin Technology Council report: The Economic Value of Academic Research and Development in Wisconsin.)
UW Personnel
In 2005-06, the Management and Staff Report identified approximately 33,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) appointments in the University of Wisconsin System. This total includes approximately 30,000 faculty, staff, and employees-in-training, and 3,000 student assistants. University personnel consist of two general categories of employees: classified and unclassified personnel. Those employed in the classified service, such as nurses and clerical staff, are governed by statute and administrative rules established by the Office of State Employment Relations. There are more than 10,600 UW System classified FTE appointments included in the 33,000 appointments.
(See Section 10 for Current Number of FTE Appointments by Category.)
Unclassified staff are governed by statute, administrative rules, and UW Board of Regents policy. Within the unclassified titling structure, the following title groups are included: academic administrators, academic program directors, faculty, instructional and research academic staff, administrative directors, administrative officers, other academic staff (coach, state geologist, etc.), program managers, professional academic staff, employees-in-training, and student assistants.
There are more than 6,000 FTE faculty positions within the UW System. By statute, faculty are defined as individuals holding a specific rank within an academic department or its functional equivalent. Their duties include teaching, research and public service. There are four ranks of faculty: instructor, assistant professor, associate professor and full professor. Systemwide, approximately 42.8 percent of UW faculty are full professors, 27.9 percent are associate professors, 28.4 percent are assistant professors and less than 1.0 percent are instructors or other unranked faculty.
The UW also employs approximately 10,125 FTE academic staff. Academic staff are professional and administrative personnel, other than faculty and classified staff, with duties primarily associated with UW institutional teaching, research or public service, but not all three concurrently.
Approximately 18,100 of the university’s positions in 2005-06 were supported by general fund revenues, which represent about 52 percent of the state’s total number of GPR positions. Most of the university’s GPR positions are primarily funded through a combination of GPR and tuition and fees. The approximately 14,900 remaining positions are primarily funded through gift and grant funds, auxiliary operations receipts, federal contracts, trust funds, and segregated funds.
(See Section 10 which shows the UW System Authorized GPR/Fee FTE position counts and Total Positions from 1995-96 to 2005-06. Since 1995-96, the number of GPR-funded FTE positions has declined by approximately 438 FTE (~2.4%), while total positions have increased by approximately 530 FTE (~1.7%).)
The growth in total university positions has occurred as a result of additional federally funded positions, gift and grants-funded positions, and other program revenue positions.
Adjustments to UW faculty and academic staff compensation are determined according to the same pay plan process in which compensation levels for all other non-represented state employees are established. Funding for all pay plan increases, both salary and fringe benefit adjustments, is not contained in agency budgets; instead, it is provided in separate compensation reserves for later allocation to agencies’ appropriations.
Unlike other state agencies, the Board of Regents submits a pay plan request for UW unclassified employees to the Office of State Employee Relations (OSER). The OSER Director then submits a separate recommendation for UW unclassified staff pay increases to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) which can approve, modify or reject the OSER recommendation. Any modification by JCOER of OSER’s recommendation is subject to gubernatorial veto.
From 1998-99 to 2003-04, salary increases for continuing faculty at the doctoral campuses, the comprehensive campuses, and the colleges met or exceeded the average increases of similar institutions nationwide. However, in 2003-04 increases provided to faculty members fell below those of their peer institutions. Faculty salaries at similar colleges and universities in other states continue to outpace faculty salaries in Wisconsin.
(See Section 10 for Average Faculty Salaries by Institution and Rank for 2005-06 and Peer Group Median Salary Averages.)
The UW System’s senior executive positions were removed from the state’s executive salary plan, and the Board of Regents was given the authority to set the salaries for these positions within the ranges established by the Board (SEG 3-9), based on an analysis of salaries paid for similar positions at peer institutions in other states, or within ranges approved by the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (SEG 1-2). The Board is required to consider the hierarchical structure of the system, merit, orderly salary progression, and competitive factors when making senior executive salary changes. Regent Policy 94-4 states the senior executive salary ranges are established between 90% and 110% of the midpoint adopted by the Board.
(See Section 10 for Approved Salary Ranges for UW System Senior Executives for 2005-06 and 2006-07.)
Contact Information
The University of Wisconsin System is to be the premier developer of advanced human potential, to work with businesses and communities to create high-quality jobs for our students when they graduate, and to improve the quality of life across this great state. The UW System’s long history is filled with rich tradition and important contributions to the progress of Wisconsin and the nation. For further information about the University of Wisconsin System, contact:
Office of the President
1700 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
(608) 262-2321; by fax: (608) 262-3985
http//www.wisconsin.edu.