State money

Higher education

Iowa’s three public universities are run by the Board of Regents; its 15 community colleges each have their own elected board. The state pays part of what each costs to run, and students pay the rest through tuition. The state budget · State checkbook

State money for colleges

In FY26 the state’s General Fund paid $503.8 million to the three universities’ general budgets and $243.4 million in general aid to the community colleges..¹

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Fiscal year	SUI	ISU	UNI	Community colleges
FY04	$221M	$174M	$78M	$137M
FY05	$220M	$173M	$78M	$140M
FY06	$226M	$177M	$81M	$150M
FY07	$231M	$180M	$83M	$160M
FY08	$258M	$205M	$92M	$172M
FY09	$270M	$212M	$96M	$180M
FY10	$226M	$177M	$80M	$149M
FY11	$218M	$171M	$78M	$159M
FY12	$210M	$164M	$75M	$164M
FY13	$216M	$170M	$81M	$177M
FY14	$222M	$174M	$83M	$193M
FY15	$231M	$181M	$89M	$201M
FY16	$231M	$182M	$94M	$201M
FY17	$223M	$175M	$95M	$200M
FY18	$212M	$167M	$94M	$201M
FY19	$215M	$171M	$96M	$203M
FY20	$219M	$175M	$100M	$209M
FY21	$216M	$172M	$98M	$209M
FY22	$216M	$172M	$98M	$215M
FY23	$218M	$174M	$99M	$222M
FY24	$218M	$174M	$99M	$229M
FY25	$223M	$178M	$102M	$236M
FY26	$223M	$178M	$102M	$243M

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Regent universities: students

Fall 2025	Students	Undergraduates from Iowa	From elsewhere	Graduate and professional
University of Iowa	31,563	13,244	10,163	8,156
Iowa State University	31,105	14,894	11,452	4,759
University of Northern Iowa	9,204	7,036	764	1,404

Students each fall

Headcount, every level.²

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Fall	SUI	ISU	UNI
2012	30,128	30,748	12,273
2013	29,584	32,948	12,159
2014	29,805	34,428	11,928
2015	30,704	35,708	11,981
2016	31,872	36,348	11,905
2017	32,065	35,988	11,907
2018	31,560	34,991	11,212
2019	31,142	33,391	10,497
2020	30,318	31,825	9,522
2021	29,910	30,708	9,231
2022	30,020	29,969	8,949
2023	30,045	30,177	9,021
2024	30,779	30,432	9,283
2025	31,563	31,105	9,204

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Undergraduates from Iowa

Share of each university’s undergraduates who are Iowa residents.

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Fall	SUI	ISU	UNI
2012	55.5%	66.7%	92.0%
2013	54.8%	65.1%	90.7%
2014	54.4%	64.0%	89.3%
2015	54.7%	64.2%	89.3%
2016	54.4%	61.8%	90.0%
2017	57.8%	60.0%	90.4%
2018	61.1%	59.1%	90.9%
2019	62.2%	59.6%	91.3%
2020	62.6%	61.1%	91.3%
2021	62.5%	60.9%	91.7%
2022	60.7%	60.3%	92.0%
2023	59.2%	58.7%	91.2%
2024	58.3%	57.5%	90.9%
2025	56.6%	56.5%	90.2%

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State money per Iowa student

General university money for the fiscal year over the Iowa residents counted that fall.³

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Fiscal year	SUI	ISU	UNI
FY13	$13,252	$8,962	$7,311
FY14	$14,018	$8,766	$7,676
FY15	$14,564	$8,933	$8,500
FY16	$14,034	$8,651	$8,937
FY17	$13,073	$8,470	$8,979
FY18	$11,742	$8,442	$8,887
FY19	$11,526	$8,970	$9,594
FY20	$11,742	$9,521	$10,614
FY21	$11,907	$9,611	$11,626
FY22	$12,211	$9,990	$11,870
FY23	$12,595	$10,427	$12,250
FY24	$12,912	$10,683	$12,245
FY25	$13,151	$11,073	$12,190
FY26	$13,134	$10,927	$12,408

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What students pay

Average tuition by kind of college

A year’s tuition for a full-time Iowa undergraduate, 2020–21 to 2025–26.⁴

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Year	Regents	Private	Community
2020–21	$7,927	$30,892	$5,491
2021–22	$8,021	$31,742	$5,678
2022–23	$8,500	$32,577	$5,726
2023–24	$8,798	$44,543	$6,070
2024–25	$9,034	$32,890	$6,372
2025–26	$9,548	$34,618	$6,507

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Community college tuition per credit hour

Average in-state tuition across the 15 colleges: $211.75 in FY26, up from $150.48 in FY16.⁵

Fiscal year	Per credit hour
FY16	$150.48
FY17	$157.05
FY18	$162.05
FY19	$168.42
FY20	$173.65
FY21	$179.38
FY22	$184.45
FY23	$191.18
FY24	$198.15
FY25	$205.15
FY26	$211.75

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Fiscal year	Per credit hour
FY16	$150.48
FY17	$157.05
FY18	$162.05
FY19	$168.42
FY20	$173.65
FY21	$179.38
FY22	$184.45
FY23	$191.18
FY24	$198.15
FY25	$205.15
FY26	$211.75

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Each community college, FY26

College	Tuition	Fees	In-state total	Out-of-state total
Northwest	$213.00	$30.00	$243.00	$253.00
Iowa Lakes	$221.00	$17.00	$238.00	$253.00
Iowa Valley	$210.00	$26.00	$236.00	$278.00
Iowa Central	$216.00	$19.00	$235.00	$330.50
Iowa Western	$218.00	$17.00	$235.00	$240.00
Northeast Iowa	$209.00	$25.00	$234.00	$270.00
Hawkeye	$227.00	$7.00	$234.00	$235.00
Eastern Iowa	$209.00	$23.00	$232.00	$276.00
Southwestern	$219.00	$13.00	$232.00	$239.00
Indian Hills	$218.00	$10.00	$228.00	$255.00
North Iowa Area	$198.25	$28.50	$226.75	$325.88
Southeastern	$212.00	$10.00	$222.00	$227.00
Kirkwood	$221.00	$0.00	$221.00	$296.00
Western Iowa Tech	$184.00	$29.00	$213.00	$219.00
Des Moines Area	$201.00	$0.00	$201.00	$231.00

Per credit hour. A full-time student takes about 24 to 30 credit hours a year.

Community colleges

88,530 students took credit classes in fall 2025, 58,942 of them part-time.⁶

Students each fall

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Fall	Total	Full-time	Part-time
2000	65,473	34,047	31,426
2001	68,790	35,857	32,933
2002	73,947	38,660	35,287
2003	78,281	41,028	37,253
2004	81,803	41,778	40,025
2005	82,499	41,435	41,064
2006	84,961	41,759	43,202
2007	87,072	42,307	44,765
2008	88,104	43,209	44,895
2009	100,736	50,683	50,053
2010	106,597	53,883	52,714
2011	105,975	51,107	54,868
2012	100,519	46,355	54,164
2013	94,234	42,186	52,048
2014	93,772	38,005	55,767
2015	93,074	37,580	55,494
2016	91,430	36,151	55,279
2017	90,531	34,195	56,336
2018	89,894	33,005	56,889
2019	88,375	31,580	56,795
2020	83,109	29,236	53,873
2021	81,749	28,549	53,200
2022	82,251	28,077	54,174
2023	85,362	28,436	56,926
2024	86,582	28,808	57,774
2025	88,530	29,588	58,942

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State aid per student

General aid for the fiscal year over the students counted the fall it began, full- and part-time alike.

Fiscal year	Aid per student
FY04	$1,749
FY05	$1,709
FY06	$1,813
FY07	$1,878
FY08	$1,975
FY09	$2,047
FY10	$1,477
FY11	$1,489
FY12	$1,545
FY13	$1,764
FY14	$2,051
FY15	$2,146
FY16	$2,163
FY17	$2,182
FY18	$2,217
FY19	$2,255
FY20	$2,361
FY21	$2,511
FY22	$2,632
FY23	$2,695
FY24	$2,681
FY25	$2,724
FY26	$2,749

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Fiscal year	Aid per student
FY04	$1,749
FY05	$1,709
FY06	$1,813
FY07	$1,878
FY08	$1,975
FY09	$2,047
FY10	$1,477
FY11	$1,489
FY12	$1,545
FY13	$1,764
FY14	$2,051
FY15	$2,146
FY16	$2,163
FY17	$2,182
FY18	$2,217
FY19	$2,255
FY20	$2,361
FY21	$2,511
FY22	$2,632
FY23	$2,695
FY24	$2,681
FY25	$2,724
FY26	$2,749

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Each college, fall 2021 to 2025

College	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Northeast	4,163	4,304	4,387	4,622	4,807
North Iowa Area	2,482	2,479	2,471	2,662	2,722
Iowa Lakes	1,833	1,988	2,081	2,027	2,018
Northwest Iowa	1,706	1,798	1,772	1,871	2,024
Iowa Central	5,009	5,058	4,934	4,975	5,023
Iowa Valley	2,486	2,442	2,573	2,565	2,708
Hawkeye	5,085	4,787	4,796	5,120	5,040
Eastern Iowa	7,460	7,145	7,128	7,426	7,690
Kirkwood	12,607	12,414	12,662	12,765	13,419
Des Moines Area	20,536	21,637	24,418	23,697	23,891
Western Iowa Tech	5,450	5,151	5,074	5,486	5,409
Iowa Western	5,684	5,630	5,635	5,588	5,889
Southwestern	1,542	1,581	1,633	1,566	1,605
Indian Hills	3,385	3,361	3,236	3,184	3,198
Southeastern	2,321	2,476	2,562	3,028	3,087

Notes

What the state’s accounting system paid out under each university’s “general university” appropriation and the community colleges’ general aid (in FY2011 aid was appropriated to each college; it is added up here), from Iowa Data Hub dataset 999, State of Iowa Expenditures. The universities also get smaller appropriations for set purposes (the Hygienic Lab, agricultural extension, the veterinary diagnostic lab and others) and money for buildings, not counted here. FY2010 was cut partway through the year, and federal stimulus money filled part of the gap that year and the next. After inflation uses the consumer price index by fiscal year, prices as of 2026-10. ↩
Fall enrollment by university, student level and residency, from Iowa Data Hub dataset 991 (Board of Regents), fall 2012 on. Residency is for tuition purposes. ↩
A rough guide, not what the state spends on any one student: the appropriation pays for the whole university (research, nonresident and graduate students included), and residents are counted at every level. ↩
Iowa College Aid’s average costs by sector, Iowa Data Hub dataset 932. The Hub’s file starts in 2020–21, so earlier years aren’t shown here; the community college reports below go back to FY2016. Room and board are left out. The Hub’s 2023–24 figure for private colleges is far above the years around it; it is shown as published. ↩
Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Community Colleges Tuition and Fees reports, FY2017 to the newest (each also gives the year before). Mandatory fees are extra. Older reports use other layouts and are left out. ↩
Fall credit headcount from the Department of Education’s Iowa Community Colleges Fall Enrollment data tables (statewide since 1965; by college, the five newest falls in each year’s file). High school students taking college classes are counted. ↩

Sources: Iowa Data Hub datasets 999 (State of Iowa Expenditures), 991 (Regent university fall enrollment) and 932 (average costs by sector); Iowa Department of Education community college fall enrollment and tuition reports; consumer price index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.