The “Block U” on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City is pictured on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Tuition at the University of Utah will be free for some students with families earning less than $100,000 a year, the state’s flagship higher education institution announced Tuesday morning.
With a new initiative called the Utah Promise, the school is set to cover tuition and mandatory fees for up to four years of full-time enrollment starting in fall 2026 with scholarships and grants.
The program will be available for undergraduate students who are Utah residents and whose household income and assets are each less than $100,000 annually. The effort has been designed to expand access to higher education across the state, according to a news release from the university.
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“This is a transformative step for the University of Utah,” Taylor Randall, University of Utah president said in a statement. “No student should have to choose between pursuing a college education and their family’s financial security. Utah Promise ensures that higher education is within reach for thousands of talented students across our state.”
To qualify for the program, Utah students must be first-time, first-year undergraduate students who graduated from high school with a 3.5 or higher unweighted GPA. Eligible students must also apply for admission by the University of Utah’s Dec. 1 priority deadline and complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA, by Feb. 1.
Students will remain eligible as long as they file the FAFSA form every year and their families maintain their qualifying income and assets. Recipients must also complete full-time course loads every semester and keep a cumulative 3.5 GPA or higher.
The program also adds to another effort the university is testing, guaranteeing admission to the state’s highest performing high school students in certain school districts. It was estimated that about 5,000 students would qualify for that initiative. It also joins other initiatives to simplify and streamline the school’s merit scholarship process, the university said.
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As trust in higher education, according to a Gallup poll, recovers from a 2023 and 2024 low, and the Utah Legislature explores ways to reshape the public higher education system to accommodate programs that will launch students’ careers into a trade quicker, the University of Utah also witnessed historic enrollment and completion numbers this year.
This fall, the university had the largest incoming class in its 175-history, the U. said in a news release — 6,513 first-year students and 1,497 new transfer students.
Enrollment in the university has grown for the last six years. It increased almost 8% last year and 31% since 2020, according to the U. The most popular major is business.
The university also awarded the largest number of degrees in its history during the 2024-2025 academic year. About half of them were in STEM disciplines and 80% in what the Utah Department of Workforce Services identified to be high-demand fields.
“Enrollment growth only matters when it leads to student success,” Paul Kohn, senior vice provost for strategic enrollment and student success, said in a statement. “We’re investing in every stage of the student journey — from access and affordability to academic support and career readiness — to help students reach graduation in a timely and meaningful way.”
