Board of Regents expands system budget, allocates more funding to Promise Plus – The Daily Texan

Following a recent budget increase for 2027, the Promise Plus program will receive additional funding to support the financial aid initiative.

The Promise Plus program is a fund designed to provide full-tuition coverage to Texas residents enrolled full-time in an undergraduate program whose families earn up to $100,000 and partial tuition support for families earning up to $125,000. The UT System will allocate an additional $65 million to the fund.

The UT System established a program to cover tuition in 2019 with a $167 million endowment. In 2022, a second endowment of $300 million was approved to support the program, according to a University news release from 2024. The two collectively form the Promise Plus program.

Last year, an extra $35 million was added to help students quickly receive this support. Under the current eligibility requirements, tuition is fully covered for students whose families have an income up to an adjusted gross income of $100,000. Additionally, those up to $125,000 can receive tuition support.

“That still keeps us at the same (adjusted gross income), $100,000,” said Kevin Eltife, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents in an Aug. 13 Board meeting. 

Although the program is receiving additional funding, this extra capital is going to maintain the current program requirements, Eltife said in the meeting. Eltife said there is a discussion of making the adjusted gross income limit higher, which would offer the tuition coverage to more Texas students.

“We’ll have to put more into the endowment, or more on an annual basis to get (the limit) higher, which the chancellor and everyone is looking at,” Eltife said. “That’s the goal.”

Across the board, the UT System academic institutions had a total revenue of about $9 billion in 2026. That number will increase to about $9.7 billion in 2027. UT Austin has approximately $4.6 billion in revenue for 2026, which will increase to about $5.1 billion for 2027.

“The UT System continues its trajectory of record-growth in a variety of categories,” said Derek Horton, the UT System deputy chief financial officer, in the meeting. “For example, we continue to financially outpace other Texas systems and we expect that trend to continue as we see future growth across our institutions.”