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Graduate enrollment slump, loan-rule changes pose revenue risk for Virginia Tech
Summary
Graduate enrollment slides showed declines since 2024 and identified the July 2026 elimination of Grad PLUS for new borrowers and new borrowing caps as compounding risks; finance staff cited roughly $5M net graduate tuition loss in FY26 and a prospective $4.5M FY27 risk.
Dean Aimee Surprenant told the board that graduate students are critical to Virginia Tech's research enterprise and that the university is seeing declines in graduate and international graduate enrollment since 2024. Slides reported declines in several graduate cohorts; the minutes record a slide listing a 14% overall decline (16% PhD, 13% master's) while another slide showed larger percentage drops for particular groups. The minutes do not explicitly reconcile the two slide figures.
The retreat materials and finance commentary described immediate budget implications: the university recorded an estimated net graduate tuition revenue decrease of about $5 million in FY26 and prospectively planned for an additional $4.5 million of potential net graduate revenue losses for FY27 attributable in part to declining international enrollments and loan-rule changes. Board discussion covered strategies to stabilize the pipeline, including accelerated undergraduate-to-graduate pathways and targeted professional graduate program growth.
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