Alabama’s public universities will see increases in funding in fiscal year 2025 averaging 7.24% above the current year.
The universities have combined direct appropriations of about $1.6 billion, up from $1.5 billion this year, Jim Purcell, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, said Friday during the commission’s quarterly board meeting.
Purcell said the allocations were relatively close to ACHE’s funding requests.
“As you know, some people have better politics than others, so it’s not an exact science,” he said.
Purcell said higher education had a good 2024 legislative session.
“(We’re) very appreciative of the Legislature for their support, especially for operations and maintenance,” Purcell said. He said recent increases in funding have been specific to initiatives and projects, so the additional and more general operations and maintenance funding is helpful to universities.
There was also a $500,000 increase in the state’s low income student assistance program to $9.5 million.
Need-based aid in Alabama still lags when compared to other states. About 2.2% of higher education’s appropriation was used for financial support in fiscal year 2023. The national average is 10%
“State aid in this state is problematic and we’ve been working hard to increase it,” Purcell said. “Gov. Kay Ivey has tripled it since she’s been in office.”
Meanwhile, about 52.5% of total higher education revenues in 2023 came from student tuition, and 47.5% came from state funding. Nationwide, nearly 60% of institutions’ funding comes from state allocations.
“Alabama is way ahead of the national average on this,” Purcell said. “… Most of us that went to college in Alabama, three-quarters of it used to be paid by the state, now it’s about 50/50.”
And at $15,062, Alabama’s net tuition rate per full-time student is the fourth highest in the country – more than twice the U.S. average of $7,353.
“It’s not just simply the high-priced universities, it’s at the community colleges too when you compare us from state to state,” Purcell said.
Gov. Kay Ivey and the Legislature last month approved a $9.3 billion 2025 education budget.
About 68% of that funding is directed at K-12 education.