Chapter 15: Higher Education

• Submit an electronic copy of the higher education budget forms template with your operating budget submittal in September 2026. This includes attachments A through C.
• For operating budget/higher education form deadlines, see Chapter 1.
• Submit electronic copies of each negotiated collective bargaining agreement between the institution and each bargaining unit by October 1, 2026.
• Submit college in the high school course enrollment data to OFM and legislative fiscal staff by October 15, 2026.
• Complete the tuition and enrollment change model (TECM) template and email it to Kevin Feltus by October 23, 2026.

OFM and the Legislature need this additional information to:

1. Understand the level of undergraduate student indebtedness at graduation and how each campus uses financial aid and tuition waivers.
2. Update the TECM, which is used to estimate: (a) the financial impact of any 2027–29 tuition changes, and (b) the extent to which tuition revenues will offset instructional costs for new enrollments.
3. Assist the collective bargaining process by helping OFM evaluate the financial feasibility of agreements reached with bargaining units and to better understand changes in faculty salaries.
4. Provide clear guidance regarding requests for maintenance and operations (M&O) funding.
5. Update our information on non-appropriated and local accounts (145, 148, 149, etc.) and ensure accurate expenditure levels for these accounts in the budget system.

When completing the recommendation summary (RecSum) view of your budget, please submit detail for each institution and each campus showing all budgeted funds (see list below).

Budgeted Accounts

001        General Fund
08A        Education Legacy Trust Account
120        Administrative Contingency Account
143        Federal Appropriations Account
145        Grants and Contracts Account
148        Dedicated Local Account
149        Operating Fees Account
443        Data Processing Account
489        Pension Funding Stabilization Account
505        University of Washington – University Hospital Account
608        Accident Account
609        Medical Aid Account
788        Advanced College Tuition Payment Program Account

Attachment A-1: Locally Authorized Salary Increases
Section 604 of the biennial appropriations acts requires that all locally funded salary increases on or after July 1, 2019, greater than the state-supported increases authorized by those acts be excluded from the compensation base used for calculation of future state-supported salary increases. Unfortunately, the compensation impact model (CIM) design and instructions do not readily accommodate compliance with this statutory requirement.

Please identify the value of such increases on Attachment A-1. On the form, show only (a) the estimated locally authorized incremental cost that (b) was reported as a General Fund-State or tuition-funded cost on your institution’s most recent CIM submission.

You can find the higher education budget form template with attachments A through C on OFM’s forms webpage.

Attachment A-2a and Attachment A-2b: Non-Faculty and Classified CBA Summaries
For any collective bargaining agreement not negotiated by the OFM Labor Relations Unit, OFM must certify that the cost is financially feasible for the state. To provide this certification, OFM needs the following from the institution:

1. A copy of the agreement reached between the institution and each bargaining unit, in electronic format, by October 1, 2026. Email to Scott Hancock and Ramona Nabors.

2. Each negotiated bargaining agreement as a separate decision package with a brief statement showing the various components of the agreement and the cost estimate for each component.
   1. Label recommendation summary titles with the name of the bargaining unit.
   2. Show four years of costs for the agreements that will be in effect during the 2027-29 biennium.
   3. Include contact information for a person who can discuss these calculations with OFM.

3. The cost of each individual component of each agreement shown separately by fund and fiscal year based on actuals. See Attachment A-2b (classified CBA summary) for an electronic template.

4. Provide a crosswalk from the higher education job classification to the State Human Resources (State HR) list of approved job classes, if the bargaining unit contains any job classes that do not appear on the State HR list of approved classes. Provide crosswalks in an Excel spreadsheet or delimited text file. Job class code 99999999 and others used exclusively for exempt employees are exceptions to the crosswalk requirement.See State HR’s job classes and salaries webpage for a list of job classes.

5. Complete Attachments A-2a (non-faculty exempt CBA template) and Attachment A-2b (classified CBA summary) for each agreement.

For other types of compensation changes or for additional information, please contact Scott Hancock.

Attachment A-3: Faculty Collective Bargaining Summary
To better understand how faculty salaries have changed in recent years, OFM and the Legislature need information on collective bargaining agreements that institutions have negotiated with faculty (if applicable).

For each negotiated agreement currently in effect — or that has been negotiated but has not yet taken effect — provide a completed A-3 worksheet and cost information for each individual component of the agreement.

To put these contracts in context, we also require cost information for the previous faculty contract. Thus, provide salary base, fund source and component cost summaries on the A-3 worksheet.

Provide a copy of each agreement reached between the institution and each bargaining unit, in electronic format, for all agreements in place between fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2027, where applicable.

Attachment A-4: Student Collective Bargaining Summary
To evaluate recent expansions in student bargaining, a new A-4 worksheet has been added. Please provide a cost breakdown for each component of agreements currently effective or awaiting implementation. Additionally, include cost summaries from the previous student contract using the A-4 worksheet where applicable.

Attachment B-1: State-Support Waivers
Provide actual headcount recipients and operating fee (Account 149-6) dollars waived by primary waiver purpose, RCW citation where applicable, level of study (graduate/undergraduate) and residency status. For the most part, state-supported waivers are outlined in RCW 28B.15.910(1), (2), and (4). Waiver recipients often qualify for waivers for multiple reasons; for example, the surviving child of a veteran may also have financial need and be an outstanding student. In such cases, count the recipient and the dollars waived just once. 

Attachment B-2: Nonstate-Supported Waivers
Provide the same information as described above. Nonstate supported waivers are described in RCW 28B.15.915 and 28B.15.910(3).

Attachment B-3: Financial Aid from Nonstate Sources
Provide actual headcount recipients and grants and loans disbursed from federal and private financial aid sources packaged for state-supported students by your institution’s financial aid office. 

Attachment B-4: Student Loan Debt
Report cumulative student loan debt at graduation for undergraduates receiving baccalaureate degrees in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years.

Include an electronic copy of forms B-1 and B-2 with your TECM data submission to Kevin Feltus at LEAP.

1. Provide the information requested on Attachment C separately for maintenance level (ML) and policy level (PL) requests, if any.
   1. At ML, institutions may propose state support for operations and maintenance costs associated with facilities coming online in 2027-29 that were constructed or expanded with direct financial support from the state capital budget.
   2. At PL, institutions may request state support for instructional or research facilities that were constructed with non-state funds, particularly those for which prior authorization has been provided in a previous capital or operating budget.

Include the state capital project number assigned to each facility for which funding is requested.

2. At the bottom of Attachment C, show the proposed cost per square foot by component (utilities, maintenance, custodial and grounds, and facilities support) and explain the basis for that estimate.

3. If facility square footage or intended use differs measurably from amounts identified on the capital project request report (CBS002), include a complete explanation for the variance in your decision package and a justification for why any amounts higher than identified on the capital project request report should be supported.

4. If funding is being requested for a facility that is replacing older space, net out the M&O cost of the facility being replaced. At the top of Attachment C, show the total gross square feet that are being replaced, calculate the estimated total cost of maintaining and operating that space at your institution’s actual average fiscal year 2026 M&O cost per square foot and deduct that cost from the calculated M&O cost of the new replacement space.

5. If funding is being requested for a renovated facility, explain why M&O of the renovated facility is expected to be more expensive than the old.

Data for updating the TECM. TECM data should include 2025-26 student data and an annualized average for the 2026-27 academic year based on 10th day enrollment.

1. Complete the TECM template, available on OFM’s budget forms webpage; and
2. Send an electronic copy of the TECM, B-1 and B-2 forms to Kevin Feltus at LEAP by October 23, 2026.

Enrollment Information
Include all students enrolled in state-supported courses, including students who are enrolled under non-state-supported waivers. For the tuition model, state-supported means courses for which operating fee revenue is deposited into Account 149.

Include the following information in your submittal:

• Actual 2025–26 academic year headcount distribution for students enrolled in courses for which operating fee revenue was deposited in Account 149. List this information by credit hour, campus, student category, residency status (resident vs. nonresident) and term. Reference the data template for more detail.
• Annualized average 2026-27 academic year headcount distribution based on 10th day enrollment reporting for students enrolled in courses for which operating fee revenue was deposited into Account 149. List this information by credit hour, campus, student category and residency status and term. Reference the data template for more detail. “Annualized average” means fall, winter and spring terms, but not summer.

Revenue Information
Include the following information in your submittal:

• Gross actual Account 149 revenue collections for the 2025-26 academic year. Provide information by campus and student type. In this case, there are only two student types-resident undergraduate and all other students.
• Net operating fees. These are fees deposited into Account 149 after waivers and the diversion of tuition collections into the institutional aid fund and before adding interest earnings and making bond payment transfers.
• Total operating fee waived for the 2025-26 academic year. Use OFM budget forms B-1 and B-2. Data should be at the student-category level for both resident and nonresident students. Use the same student categories as used to report enrollment information.
• Cost per credit hour for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years. List operating, building, and service and activity fees separately. Reference the data template for more detail. Data should be at the student-category level for both resident and nonresident students. Use the same student categories as used to report enrollment information.

Data to Determine State Appropriations
In accordance with Chapter 314, 2023 Laws, institutions of higher education should submit course administration data to OFM and legislative fiscal staff by October 15, 2026.

Institutions should utilize the CIHS Enrollment Data Template, available on OFM’s budget forms webpage, to format these data.

Important: If an instructor teaches multiple sections of the same course for the same school within the same term, aggregate the enrollment count and report it in a single row.

How to Report Course Enrollment

Local fund summaries. For Account 148, report each revenue source separately.

Fund balance management. Provide a narrative summary of the historic management and uses of accounts 148 and 149, including an explanation of any reserve or working capital policies that govern fund balances in these accounts. If your institution does not have a reserve or working capital policy, explain why.