Utah’s public colleges may face budget cuts in 2025

A struggle pitting Utah state lawmakers against higher education leaders could be developing in the weeks leading up to the 2025 legislative general session.

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz is pushing for budget cuts and other reforms at public colleges and universities in the state, in the hopes of saving the state money and making college more accessible to more students. So far, higher ed administrators haven’t publicly discussed the possible budget cuts, instead saying they’re still having discussions with state lawmakers.

Any such cuts would sting Utah’s publicly funded colleges, but Schultz said he thinks cuts don’t need to be passed along to students through tuition hikes.

The state Speaker fires off a list of issues he classifies as “inefficiencies” and “challenges” inside the state’s 16 higher education institutions that he would like to see remedied in the upcoming session:

• The rising cost of higher education and resulting rising student loans.
• Enrollment logjams in high-industry-demand majors such as nursing and engineering.
• Declining Utah enrollment forecasts.
• Bachelor’s degrees taking too long to earn.
• And, finally, costly low-participation degree programs.

With the 2024 elections now in the rearview mirror, Schultz, R-Hooper, and his colleagues can now focus on the fast-approaching 2025 legislative session.

Read the full story and more from Jason Swensen on deseret.com.