I’ve Never Taken a Finance Course – But Here’s What I Learned About WVU’s Budget

I’ve never taken a finance or investing course. I’m an engineering major.

Still, after reviewing WVU’s financial statements and proposed FY2025 plan, I wanted to make sense of how our university makes and spends money — and share those insights in a way that helps you get a better understanding of WVU’s financial system at a glance.

💼 Financial Structure of WVU

West Virginia University (WVU), a state-supported educational institution is a public land-grant university established under the Morrill Act of 1862 (shoutout Abraham Lincoln) to establish colleges focused on agriculture, science, and engineering.

📊 Examining the Statements of Revenue

After reviewing the statements of revenue from 2020-2024 and proposed FY2025 plan we see that top line revenues are increasing slowly. If we account for inflation it is near flat or +1% or +2% year over year. This is not really anything out of the ordinary and in line with the national average.

I believe its equally important to know where the revenue is coming from.

According to the fiscal year 2024. They get the majority of there revenue from Tuition and Fees (30%) and Gifts, Grants & Contracts (27%). These two sources of revenue have dominated over the the past 10 years, with the 30% coming from tuition being on the lower end. (37% came from tuition in 2019)

On campus, is it quite common to overhear students complain about the cost of education but let's examine the numbers before we become hypocrites in our ignorance.

🎓WVU Tuition Increases over the the past 5 years

On average:

Resident students saw tuition and fees increase $113 per semester
Non-residents saw increases of $329 per semester

It’s hard to nail down a specific percentage increase because what students actually pay varies depending on scholarships, residency, and major. But based on WVU's published tuition rates, I’d estimate that tuition increases haven’t outpaced inflation. If anything, inflation has risen faster than WVU’s prices based on ballpark tuition estimates from WVU (https://tuition.wvu.edu/).

💸Scholarships Matter — A Lot

It would be misleading to only look at tuition costs without factoring in scholarships. After all, a drop in financial aid affects what students pay just as much as a tuition hike.

WVU has significantly ramped up institutional aid over time:

In FY2025, WVU expects to award $137 million in institutional (unfunded) scholarships.
Programs like the WVU Pledge, Mountain Scholars, and Climb Higher are designed to reduce out-of-pocket costs — especially for low-income or rural West Virginia students.

So yes, tuition is rising — but so is support.

Use of Cash Chart. 2017-2018

Use of Cash Chart 2023-2024.

Although cut slightly in the recent year the general trend for an increase of usage of cash for scholarships is increasing.

Now that we are on the topics of expenses (yes scholarships are an expense for the university) I will compare how much revenue WVU takes in compared to how much they spend.

📉 Operating Losses: WVU Loses Money Just Staying Open?

So WVU loses 300+ million a year just by staying open?

(Yes, those parentheses around the numbers mean it's negative.)

But this isn’t as alarming as it sounds. Operating revenue doesn’t include state appropriations, which made up 19% of total income in 2024 — a major exclusion.Operating Revenue includes things like Student tuition and fees, Federal Land grants, State grants etc.

This is actually quite a common pattern in Universities and not something we should be concerned about — just yet. We will examine the Cash Flow Statement to next to get more details.

🧾 Cash Flow Statement: A Deeper Look

Simplified version of the movement of Cash 2022-2024.

Cash flow measures the real amount of cash coming in and out of the university. In recent years they have gone back and forth between being overall cash flow positive and overall negative to a small degree but nothing extreme.

Despite enrollment challenges they have been increasing there equity (net position) even with declining enrollment. This means that they are slowly increasing there value on paper, not burning it.

Enrollment Challenges

WVU’s enrollment is declining — but that’s not just a WVU problem. College enrollment is down across the United States. It is not clear if they see this as a "new normal" but to adjust, WVU has cut staff and restructured programs:

"Salaries and wages decreased by $10.9 million from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024 due to personnel reductions to meet budgetary constraints"

🔮 Looking Ahead to FY2025

✅ Balanced Budget:

For the first time in years, WVU expects to balance its budget without one-time emergency funds. They’re using a combination of:

Permanent cost cuts
Modest tuition increases
Better cash management

There’s a projected $4.6M surplus on paper, and although cash on hand drops slightly, it’s still healthy.

📈 Revenue Growth:

WVU is working to grow revenue in 2025 by:

Recruiting a larger freshman class
Improving student retention
Increasing research grants (budgeted to hit $352M, up $13M from last year)
Securing new state funding (including $5M from a performance-based model and $29M in deferred maintenance grants)

These steps show WVU is actively managing its finances and positioning for stability, even with fewer students.

🧠 Final Thoughts

I’m not a finance major. I’m not even in the business school - yet.

But understanding how our university works put things in perspective. This isn’t just about tuition bills. It’s about how WVU balances affordability, quality, and survival in a tough environment.

A review of WVU financials from an engineering major