UM Board of Curators passes 2027 budget despite cut in federal grants  

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri Board of Curators on Thursday unanimously passed the fiscal year 2027 budget during its meeting in Springfield.

Meeting documents show budgeted revenue from grants and contracts at the Columbia campus is expected to fall 12% from 2026, while S&T in Rolla is expecting a 13% loss from 2026. UMKC is not expecting any change and UMSL will see 1% in growth.

The document says UMSL’s grant revenue is expected to grow because fewer than 10% comes from federal sources.

The “all funds budget” across the entire university system – which includes its four schools and MU Health Care – is $5.49 billion, with the total operating expensive being $5.34 billion. The operating expense of the Columbia campus is $2.08 billion while MU Health Care’s is $2.18 billion, per meeting documents.

The Columbia campus is expecting to see a 3.3% undergraduate enrollment increase, while the graduate schools and professional enrollment is expected to decline by 1.5%, documents say. First-time college freshmen is expected to grow by 1.8%.

“Overall undergraduate enrollment is also expected to increase as a larger incoming class replaces a smaller graduating cohort. Graduate enrollment is budgeted to remain flat, with increased enrollment in professional doctoral programs offset by declines in non-professional graduate enrollment,” documents say.

For undergraduate enrollment, UMKC is expecting a 3.2% growth, S&T is expecting 3.1% and UMSL is expecting a decline of 2.1%. For graduate and enrollment programs, UMKC is expecting to see a drop in 6%, S&T is expecting a 9.3% decline and UMSL’s is a 3.9% decline.