Colleges and universities

This bill adds about $1.2 billion in spending for the state's fiscal year 2027, which begins July 1, including $366 million from the general and income tax funds.

H.B. 3 is the state's main spending bill for the coming year, setting a total budget of about $31.6 billion from all sources, with increases for public and higher education, social services, and criminal justice.

This bill sets state agency fees and internal service fund rates for the coming year, many of which are unchanged and must be reauthorized each year.

The bill would let people carry a concealed firearm on Utah higher education campuses without a permit, matching the rules elsewhere.

H.B. 145 would add outside activities such as mountain biking, shooting sports, 4-H, and civic or STEM programs to the list of reasons a student can have an excused absence from school.

This bill would let ROTC cadets who are from other states pay in-state tuition at Utah public colleges and universities.

H.B. 204 would bar Utah public colleges and universities from compelling students to say things or take part in activities that conflict with their sincerely held beliefs of conscience.

The bill would let local governments create 'stay out of drug areas' where law enforcement can keep repeat offenders out of targeted public spaces with open drug markets.

This bill would allow local governments and public colleges to require oral fluid samples for drug testing, alongside urine, blood, breath, and hair.

The bill directs the Legislative Fiscal Analyst to send the federal-funds portion of the state's budget stress tests to the Federalism Commission for review, and lets that commission make recommendations to the Executive Appropriations Committee if it finds risks.

H.B. 279 extends several existing higher education code provisions that currently apply only to public colleges so they also cover private post-secondary institutions.

The bill would have the Gary R.

The bill directs the Utah Board of Higher Education to define regions that each pair a technical college with a degree-granting institution so they can share programs, services, and courses.

This bill would have the Utah Board of Higher Education strengthen its work on transfer pathways so college credits are easier to move between schools.

This bill creates a one-time pilot program that lets Utah's eight universities compete for state-matched grants for research in economic development areas approved by a legislative committee.

This bill would create the Utah Forest Restoration Institute at Utah State University and tie it to the Watershed Restoration Initiative so the two coordinate forest and watershed priorities, long-term monitoring, and emergency funding after wildfires.

The bill would have the University of Utah College of Education, working with the State Board of Education, develop a free dyslexia screener that the state owns and makes available to all school districts and charter schools.

The bill directs the Office of Energy Development, working with the Utah Geological Survey, to study whether geothermal energy facilities could be built at or near current or decommissioned coal power plant sites, including temperatures, electricity potential, infrastructure, and costs.

The bill requires state agencies, including higher education, to define a building's scope through programming before requesting construction funds.

H.B. 520 would direct a housing expert in the governor's office, working with higher education leaders, to study how college student populations affect housing markets in surrounding towns and cities, including the cost of those effects.

H.B. 547 would address transnational repression, which is pressure or harm directed at people by a foreign government, with a focus on students at Utah higher education institutions.

This resolution would declare the first week of July 2026 Independence Week and support Utah's America 250 Commission and local events marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

This bill sets the state's base budget for higher education for the coming year, appropriating to each of the eight public degree-granting colleges and universities and the eight technical colleges the same amounts as the fiscal 2026 ongoing levels.

This bill adds about $454.7 million in supplemental spending to the state's 2026 fiscal year budget for various state agencies, and reduces general fund and income tax fund spending by $25.8 million.

This bill appropriates money for state employee pay and benefits for fiscal year 2026, including a 2.5% labor market pay increase for state and higher education employees and a similar increase for judicial branch and constitutional offices.

This bill removes certain outdated or redundant reporting requirements that the law enforcement and criminal justice interim committee had been assigned.

S.B. 46 adds definitions for terms such as active use, canopy, functional turf, and waterwise landscaping.

S.B. 77 would update Utah's dual language immersion rules by setting qualified-teacher requirements for upper-level concurrent enrollment courses taught in high schools, letting universities partner with districts to find teachers in six languages, and adding language proficiency tests for grades 10 through 12.

The bill would have the State Board of Education collect student information from local school districts and charter schools centrally and share it with the Utah System of Higher Education, instead of higher education negotiating separately with each one.

S.B. 195 would require Utah to collect and report on whether students in federally funded Pell programs, including short-term Workforce Pell programs under 600 hours, complete training and get jobs paying meaningful wages, and would allow data-sharing agreements with other states.

S.B. 216 sets new performance funding measures for Utah's colleges and universities for the next five years, with different measures for each type of institution, such as first-year retention and completion for community and regional schools and research and high-demand degree output for research universities.

The bill would remove the 10-year time limit on graduate tuition waivers for Purple Heart recipients, so they could use the waiver at any point in their lives.

The bill sets out the duties of university and college boards of trustees, including preparing strategic plans, evaluating the president each year, approving budgets and tuition, and overseeing internal audits.

S.B. 295 would require Utah public colleges to hold public policy events each year that present competing viewpoints, some as structured debates, and to publish a public calendar of them.

The bill would treat a student's transcripts, course history, and other education records as the student's own, so schools, universities, or vendors would need the student's informed consent before accessing or sharing them.

The bill requires the Safe UT app to be available in multiple languages, including Spanish, using a HIPAA-compliant automated translation software application rather than only bilingual staff.

This joint resolution would have the State Board of Higher Education and Utah Valley University study whether a night and weekend law school should be created at UVU, possibly at its Thanksgiving Point campus.

This bill would clarify that a person carrying a firearm on daycare or K-12 school premises must carry it concealed.

The bill would set standards for student expression in school-sponsored media and limit certain student expression in those outlets.

The bill would create a Preceptor Fund to pay clinicians who train healthcare students.

This bill would create a state-run subsidized loan program for graduate students in professions the federal government left out of its higher loan limits, such as nursing, social work, and education.

S.B. 17 would let higher education institutions join the state's credit card processing contract, which currently covers other government entities.

This bill would create a peer coaching mental health counseling grant administered by the Utah Board of Higher Education.

The bill would create a restricted account of about $5 million, funded from the general fund, to pay for dental and oral health care for uninsured K-12 children.