Students at the University of Minnesota will face the largest tuition hike in more than a decade despite leaner operations this fall across all of the school’s campuses and colleges.

Meanwhile, a flurry of long-awaited maintenance and construction projects will include new suicide prevention barriers along the Washington Avenue bridge in Minneapolis.

A 6.5% tuition hike for state residents enrolled in the Twin Cities campuses will arrive hand-in-hand with a 7% spending cut, or “scope reduction,” to both academic and non-academic programs across the University’s school and colleges, according to U president Rebecca Cunningham, who presented the final 2026 budget this week to the University’s Board of Regents.

In-state students will now pay $16,132 per year, up from about $15,100, while non-resident undergraduates will see tuition grow 7.5% and pay $39,018 per year. Tuition increases at the Duluth campus will be milder. U officials said inflation and federal funding cuts necessitated the hikes, which are the largest tuition increases since 2011.

The University will not receive any new state funding for general operations “for the first time in decades,” Cunningham said, even as more than $40 million in cuts “and rising” are being handed down from the federal government.

“We can all agree there are no easy choices this year,” she said, addressing the board. “Higher education is truly facing unprecedented challenges. The University of Minnesota is not immune, and therefore we have to make difficult decisions.”

Financial aid kicks in

Despite the tuition increase, the state’s North Star Promise program and other sources of financial aid will heavily buffer the impact for families earning less than $110,000, U officials said.

As a result, families earning less than $80,000 may not see a net increase at all in both tuition and fees.

Once other sources of aid are exhausted, the state-funded North Star Promise aims to cover “last dollar” gaps in tuition assistance for low-income students enrolled in Minnesota state colleges and universities, tribal colleges and the University of Minnesota.

“Our least-resourced students will not see this tuition increase in their tuition bill,” Cunningham said. “Our students … are paying 3% less in real dollars than they were paying a decade ago. … We do not have run-away tuition, as we do in many other parts of the country.”

Regents vote on budget, tuition hike

Expressing concern over what they described as an unprecedented fiscal climate, the Board of Regents voted 9-3 to approve the 2026 operating budget of $5.1 billion on Wednesday, as well as funding for $194.6 million in capital improvements.

The U will dip into its central reserves for $60 million to support a Strategic Investment Fund, while leaving programmatic “scope reductions” to the individual deans and leaders of each school, college and unit.

“The new strategic plan isn’t done yet,” said Regent James Farnsworth, in an interview. He cast a dissenting vote after expressing concern about the tuition hikes, as well as cuts disproportionately impacting academic programs rather than administrative spending, and what he deemed a lack of “collaboration and communication” with impacted units.

“My biggest concern is about the proposed tuition increase, and what that means for families who may already be stretched thin,” said Regent Bo Thao-Urabe, who also cast one of the three dissenting votes. “Certainly, I know this is a very complex moment for the University, with no easy choices.”

Regent Mary Turner noted that demands for student services, including disability services, have ballooned over the decades, as have the University’s contributions to cutting-edge medical and scientific research, even as state support has dropped with time.

“In the late ’70s, ’80s … our state government funded us up to 60%,” said Turner, who voted to support the new budget. “What did we get this year? Nothing.”

Construction on campus

Also approved this week, the University’s capital improvement budget relies on $60 million from the recently-approved $700 million state bonding bill for facility work, as well as another $8 million from Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council for permanent suicide prevention barriers along the Washington Avenue bridge.

The state funding will allow the U to complete long-deferred maintenance across all of its campuses, said Gregg Goldman, the executive vice president for Finance and Operations, addressing the board.

Otherwise, “we’re asking every campus, college and unit to do more with less,” he said.

Major construction projects in the capital improvement budget include:

• Solar panels across multiple locations on the Twin Cities campus ($25.4 million).

• Betty’s Apple House, a new apple house at the Landscape Arboretum, funded entirely by philanthropic gifts ($23.4 million).

• Safety railings on the Washington Avenue bridge, funded by Hennepin County and the Met Council ($8 million).

Strategic planning initiatives

Despite overall cost-cutting, Cunningham said the new budget sets aside “modest” one-time funding for strategic planning initiatives, which are still being developed. Three likely examples, she said, include investments in artificial intelligence, “the revitalization of the St. Paul campus” and student wellbeing.

“One cannot cut toward the future,” Cunningham said. “While we make cuts, we must also make investments toward the future.”

The U also plans to take steps toward growing student recruitment online and nationally while preparing for its next capital campaign, Goldman said.