Funding and Autonomy in Wisconsin Public Higher Education: A Response to the Wisconsin Technical College System
Wisconsin remains near the bottom nationally in its four-year-to-two-year funding ratio under alternative measures of enrollment.
Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy
Wisconsin remains near the bottom nationally in its four-year-to-two-year funding ratio under alternative measures of enrollment.
Wisconsin ranks 7th nationally in public support per student for its technical colleges—and 43rd for its universities.
It is a budget story. WI competes in markets with a budget model built for a slower world. The state effectively constrains what the university can charge and directly limits what it can borrow.
UW–Madison is a top research university charging a resident price that ranks 12th-lowest of the 38 public AAU universities, because for a decade that price was frozen by political decision.
Wisconsin football posted back-to-back losing seasons (5-7, 4-8) for the first time since 1991-92. We trace the collapse to the NIL era's structural transformation — and the economic effects are already emerging in Dane County.
College functions as both investment and consumption good. The report evaluates why 90-credit pathways deliver strong returns while respecting families who prioritize earnings over full residential experience.
Headline rankings got it wrong. UW-Madison crushes in majors that actually pay: #1 in Wisconsin in all 15 fields over $96k, and leads 48 of 72 overall.
UW-Madison’s Badger Football program serves as a critical revenue engine for the Athletics Department, generating roughly $60 million in annual profits. Yet, its on-field performance has declined sharply.
9.17.25. Junjie Guo and Ananth Seshadri and Christopher Taber. Economic research finds that $10 million in NIH grant generates around 2.7 private sector patents with a market value of $20-$30 million.
5.20.24. Junjie Guo, Kim Ruhl and Ananth Seshadri. In this sixth, and final, report in "The Economics of UW-Madison" white paper series we explore the internal and external constraints faced by UW-Madison and the reasons these constraints exist.