Higher Education Works for New Hampshire: UNH

Talking Points

The Goal

We need your help! Talk with your state lawmakers and tell them you want funding for UNH to be restored and to be a priority in the next state budget.

We pledge to freeze in-state tuition for two years and to increase financial aid for students in need, provided the Legislature restores its budget support to 2010 levels of $68 million.

While we are taking major steps to control costs and raise new revenues at UNH, Legislative funding decisions drive the prices that New Hampshire families pay.

The Challenge

In 2011, the New Hampshire legislature’s vote to cut state support for UNH by 49 percent--$32.5 million—was the deepest cut to higher education in the country, ever.



Nationally, the average cut in state support for higher education in 2011 was 6 percent. 

UNH was already last in per capita state support before the budget cut.

UNH now receives just 6 percent of its operating budget from the state.



New Hampshire college students graduate with the highest loan debt in the country. The average loan debt of a UNH student graduating in 2010 was $32,320.

Student Access, Affordability

UNH is committed to preserving student access and affordability.



About 30 percent of UNH students are the first in their family to pursue a four-year degree.



An estimated 60 percent of UNH students will receive need-based financial support before they graduate.



UNH is cutting expenses and raising revenues in innovative ways that protect the high quality of education and research.



Cost-cutting steps include a salary freeze and benefits cuts for non-unionized employees, a hiring freeze, and a separation incentive plan (SIP). 



State support is a subsidy for in-state students. When the state cut its support, UNH limited a supplemental tuition increase to $650 for in-state students. (Out-of-state tuition was not affected.) 



If in-state students and their families had been asked to make up the entire loss in state appropriation, in-state tuition would have gone up $4,650.



Long-Term Solutions

The UNH strategic plan challenges the University to pursue more private support, corporate partnerships, and commercialization of its intellectual property.



The University is planning a comprehensive fundraising campaign. This groundbreaking campaign will strengthen the University’s leadership role in the state economy.

This past year was one of the best fundraising years in UNH history, with the total amount of money raised second only to the final year of the last capital campaign in 2002. Gifts and pledges in fiscal year 2012 (July 1-June 30) were up more than 77 percent from the previous year, for a total of $22.5 million. 



UNH is growing enrollments with more e-learning online classes and intensified international student recruitment.



The University has revitalized its Office of Research Partnerships and Commercialization, which works with dozens of businesses on research and development, and is helping to start and grow new businesses.


Return on Investment

UNH contributes $1.4 billion to the state’s economy every year in economic activity.



Within the fields of engineering, engineering technology, and computer science, UNH graduates 58 percent of the baccalaureate degrees and 52 percent of the graduate degrees in the state.



UNH is consistently ranked in the top 5 to 10 percent nationally in graduation performance.



Compared to its peers, UNH delivers its courses 33 percent more cost effectively. 



UNH secures more federal research grants per capita (full-time faculty) than any other land-grant university in New England.



State agencies, nonprofits, and communities depend on UNH research to improve the quality of life and support local economies.



The new Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics will accommodate more students, provide world-class business education, promote research, and encourage new public-private partnerships.