The Budget

The budget advances the university’s mission by informing decisions that contribute to Rutgers’ standing as an academic, health, and research powerhouse. It is an articulation of the university’s priorities. This is why a significant portion of the university’s expenditures support classroom instruction, academic support, student services, scholarships, research, public service, extension, and patient care.

The university receives revenue from public and private sources, including tuition and fees, patient care services, sponsored research, private grants and contracts, and state appropriations. The single largest source of revenue for the university is tuition and fees, which accounts for approximately 29%. Immediately after the tuition and fees is the patient care services with just over 20% of the overall budget. As The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers derives 19% of its revenue from state appropriations, which includes operating aid for all institutions and locations, state-paid fringe benefits that covers a portion of the university’s benefit costs, and special appropriations for the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and University Behavioral Health Care.

The university also is supported by the endowment, a set of funds that come primarily from charitable donations raised through Rutgers University Foundation. The goal of the endowment is to provide a permanent source of income to support the university's mission beyond tuition and state monies. The endowment has become an increasingly important element in the university's funding of student aid, pioneering research, innovative teaching programs, and new technologies. Rounding out the university budget are revenues from sponsor research (grants, contracts as well as facility and administrative recovery), gifts and investment income, and one-time funding provided by the federal relief funds.  

The Rutgers budget process runs on an annual fiscal year cycle beginning each July. Learn more about the budget process.