UT System approves free tuition to students with parents making under $100K annually

Students in Texas whose parents make under $100,000 per year will soon have a clearer path to a college education.

On Wednesday, the University of Texas System Board of Regents’ Academic Affairs Committee approved a proposal to provide tuition-free education to undergraduate students whose families have an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less.

The initiative will be in place at each of the nine universities in the UT System, including UT-Austin and UT-Dallas, among others.

• UT-Austin tightens automatic admission threshold to 5% of Texas’ top high schoolers

This move solidifies an expansion of the UT System’s Promise Plus endowment, which has already made strides in increasing education opportunities since its first year of implementation in 2022. The program will receive an additional infusion of $35 million to help fund the expansion.

The $35 million will be provided by endowment distributions, as well as other university funds and resources.

“To be in a position to make sure our students can attend a UT institution without accruing more debt is very important to all of us, and as long as we are here, we will continue our work to provide an affordable, accessible education to all who choose to attend a UT institution,” Kevin P. Eltife, the chairman of the System’s Board of Regents said in a statement announcing the initiative.

The initiative is the largest no-cost tuition program in the State of Texas and one of the largest in the United States.