RALEIGH (February 26, 2026) – At a time when many universities across the country are shrinking, the University of North Carolina System is growing – it saw enrollment increase by 1.6% in 2024 and 3.7% last fall, to 256,530 students.1
Yet North Carolina’s General Assembly isn’t doing its part to support those students, to the tune of $158 million.
Like the state’s community colleges, the UNC System is funded by the state in arrears, based largely on the previous year’s enrollment.
But because the General Assembly still can’t get its act together to perform its most basic duty to adopt a state budget for 2025-27, the UNC System still hasn’t received any additional funding for new students it enrolled in 2024, much less 2025.
Jennifer Haygood, the system’s Chief Financial Officer, told two committees of the UNC Board of Governors yesterday that due to its largest enrollment ever last fall and better retention of existing students, the state’s public universities simply have more students to educate.
“We have experienced very broad growth going on across our campuses,” Haygood said.
She noted that 92% of the growth is in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields, led by engineering, biology, nursing and business.
As a result, the university system’s first request of legislators when they return to session in April will be for $158 million in enrollment funds:
• $46 million for growth in 2024;
• $107 million for growth in 2025; and
• $5 million for growth at N.C. Promise schools (ECSU, FSU, UNCP and WCU) that offer tuition of $500 a semester for in-state students.2
NC STATE CHANCELLOR Kevin Howell reminded board members that North Carolina has been ranked the top state in the nation for business for three of the past four years.3
“That is not a coincidence,” Howell said. “They’re coming for our students.”
“Our students deserve to get the class size that we want them to be in,” Howell said.
Students shouldn’t have to wait for space to enroll in a course section, he said, because that can delay completion of their degree.
Though some think the enrollment dollars go just to the university, Howell said, they actually flow through the university to its graduates, who in turn fuel the state’s economy.
“This is money that benefits the state of North Carolina,” he said.
Board member John Fraley said the state simply can’t afford to let down its students by not providing the professors and optimal class sizes they need.
AND RANDY RAMSEY, a former Chair of the Board of Governors, noted that it’s a matter of reimbursing the state’s universities.
Because state funds are based on the previous year’s enrollment, “Those courses have already been delivered, and our campuses have absorbed those costs,” Ramsey said.
“Enrollment growth is a great thing,” he said. Due to declining birth rates, “university systems across the country are shrinking.”
So state legislators need to recognize what a gem they have – not take it for granted.
And they need to do the job they were elected to do and adopt a budget that supports the state’s students.
If not, there’s a primary election next week and a general election in November. You know what to do.
1 https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/bog/doc.php?id=68664&code=bog, pp. 26-27.
2 https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/bog/doc.php?id=68670&code=bog, pp. 3-6.
3 https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/10/north-carolina-top-state-for-business-america.html.
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