As the University of Michigan continues to extend the reach of our excellence throughout Michigan and beyond, we enjoyed a record-setting year that illustrates our financial strength and positions us for even greater societal impact.
Our research volume totaled $1.55 billion in the most recent fiscal year, which is the largest amount in U-M history. Our donors have also made U-M the first public university ever to raise $5 billion in a fundraising campaign. Victors for Michigan is the most successful campaign in our history and in the history of public higher education.
Both of these records contribute to our success as a public university.
U-M’s top ranking in research expenditures reflects the outstanding productivity, ambition and intellectual power of our faculty. This year marked our eighth consecutive year as the No. 1 U.S. public university in research volume, and we exceeded last year’s total by 4.4 percent.
The continued growth of our research enterprise demonstrates that U-M faculty are creating new knowledge and producing innovations that can address some of the world’s most pressing questions and challenges. Our research spans all three of our campuses and Michigan Medicine, and includes unprecedented treatments for diseases, technologies to make our vehicles and roadways safer and insights that are enhancing how students learn in our K-12 schools — just to name a few.
Support from our partners in private industry also increased last year, by 9 percent, bringing that total to a record high of $109 million.
In addition, we have achieved significant milestones in the translation of our research to the market. Our researchers reported a record 484 new inventions during the last fiscal year and we nearly doubled the numbers of startup companies from our technology. With 21 startups, we launched on average a new company every 17 days!
The generosity of the U-M family continues to support our mission and enhance our work in education, research and patient care. Donors dedicated $1.1 billion to our Victors for Michigan campaign’s top priority of student support. The Vice President for Development’s report includes additional details and highlights.
Private support helps us to ensure that more students with financial need can study with us and take full advantage of the opportunities we offer.
Increasing our Commitment to Financial Aid
Nearly 26 percent of in-state undergraduates on our Ann Arbor campus are paying no tuition this fall due to university financial aid, including nearly 1,700 students under our landmark “Go Blue Guarantee.”
The guarantee, which went into effect in January 2018, includes a promise of free tuition for in-state students whose families earn less than $65,000 and have assets totaling up to $50,000.
In this year’s budget for Ann Arbor, we increased undergraduate financial aid by 16.3 percent, bringing our total for need-based undergraduate financial aid to $205.6 million. U-M’s undergraduate financial aid budget has increased 12 percent per year, on average, over the past decade, far outpacing the average annual growth rate of 3.3 percent for in-state undergraduate tuition.
Nearly 26 percent of in-state undergraduates on our Ann Arbor campus are paying no tuition this fall due to university financial aid, including nearly 1,700 students under our landmark ‘Go Blue Guarantee.’
Through the “Go Blue Guarantee” and commitment to financial aid, we are sending a message to the people of our state and beyond that we seek to welcome students from all communities and backgrounds who have the talent and desire to be Michigan Wolverines.
Extending the Reach of Michigan Excellence
Key University of Michigan initiatives and programs are ensuring that communities throughout society benefit from our activities.
Millions of people around the world are learning about complex issues and enhancing their professional development because of our Office of Academic Innovation, which offers more than 130 learning experiences through Michigan Online.
Investments targeted by our Biosciences Initiative will establish a new center for the study of concussions, an institute for global change biology and expand a program that seeks to discover new medicines from natural specimens gathered from areas ranging from tropical coral reefs to Himalayan mountaintops.
Michigan Medicine has opened new care facilities and formed new partnerships in key regions of our state to help us deliver care to patients closer to where they live. Last year, Michigan Medicine counted more than 2.3 million patient visits.
Our Poverty Solutions Initiative’s Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility is contributing to the resurgence of one of nation’s great cities. Projects are pairing dozens of U-M experts with city departments and community organizations to address challenges around health, workforce development, housing and revitalization and public safety.
This fall, we made an unprecedented commitment that will enhance the quality of teachers we produce and the communities they will serve. Led by our School of Education, we were proud to help launch an innovative new school in Detroit on the former campus of Marygrove College.
The partnership with the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the Kresge Foundation and others, is creating a teaching school that is modeled after the concept of a teaching hospital. Students from our School of Education will hone their skills while learning the theories and pedagogical techniques that are essential to the effective practice of teaching, working alongside Detroit Public School teachers and being mentored by U-M faculty.
U-M’s Financial Strength Drives Our Mission Forward
As the Chief Financial Officer’s Report discusses, our university’s financial strength allows us to uphold the greatest ideals of our mission as a premier public university.
I am continuously energized by our many amazing partnerships, within the Michigan family and beyond — as we aspire to higher levels of excellence and impact during our third century.
Fiscal discipline remains a primary focus of our budgeting, including controlling costs, seeking greater operational efficiencies and reallocating savings to academic priorities. Restraining growth in tuition while enhancing academic impact and societal value is our highest institutional priority.
U-M’s commitment to pursuing impact for the public good relies on investments in research and education, cost control, increasing financial aid, tuition restraint and philanthropy — along with what we hope will be a continuing reinvestment by the state in public higher education.
I am continuously energized by our many amazing partnerships, within the Michigan family and beyond — as we aspire to higher levels of excellence and impact during our third century.
Sincerely,
Mark S. Schlissel
President
