By Justin Choi & Katherine Coates

UCLA is one of the richest universities in the country. The most up-to-date fiscal report (2022-2023) shows UCLA raking in nearly $11.2 billion in total revenues, which is more than even what certain Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Columbia bring in. On top of the billions in revenue, UCLA also receives millions of dollars in government funding and donations from people all around the world. With that much money, one may wonder: where does all that money go? 

With its $11.2 billion total revenues, UCLA is ranked among the top U.S. universities in terms of revenue. A large portion of that money comes from its medical center, student tuition, and research grants. UCLA Health in the 2022-2023 year, brought in $3.679 billion while the university collected $983 million from student tuition. The school also received $1.39 billion in grants and contracts, which supports scientific research and other humanities work. 

Knowing the money that UCLA receives and spends is vital for the public and especially for students. While some students receive financial aid, many students pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend the nation’s number one university. When residents of California pay their taxes, their money is used to help fund higher education in the state - the University of California, as a whole, received $5 billion in state government funding (Legislative Analyst’s Office 2025). Therefore, it is crucial for everyone to pay attention as to what UCLA does with their money so that no money is wasted. 

Part of the $1.39 billion in grants and contracts UCLA receives is made up of the funding given by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to the university’s library page, UCLA is awarded nearly $500 million in NIH funding annually. The NIH funding provides support to university researchers and medical schools conducting biomedical research. 

High profile donors such as Renee and Meyer Luskin have given $25 million in 2024 to the UCLA Department of History to help fund graduate programs. In 2023, the Luskin family and the Goodman family also donated $20 million to fund a new center focusing on the microbiome’s role in disease prevention. 

In a virtual town hall back in February, UCLA’s vice chancellor and chief financial officer stated that the university receives over $1.1 billion in direct and indirect funding from the federal government (Veerabahu). The federal government sends money for Pell grants and work study programs, which the school eventually distributes out to eligible students. While there have been talks about a potential federal funding freeze and with reports that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut $109 million in federal grants, UCLA still boasts a budget like no other.

With total revenues exceeding $11 billion, UCLA’s annual budget is of similar magnitude. That is why when the Daily Bruin reported last year that the school was planning on reducing meal swipes from $9 to $4.33, students were outraged and also disappointed. In the 2024-2025 academic year, students on a 19P dining plan paid $10.55 per swipe while students on a 11P dining plan paid $15.73 per swipe. Reducing the worth of each swipe - less than half of what students paid - felt like a betrayal. For a university with a $11 billion budget, this reported move was disappointing. 

While the move did not go through, it highlighted a deeper concern. If cost cutting measures were being considered, where exactly does the rest of UCLA’s budget go towards? The answer is employee salaries and benefits. Roughly 70% of the entire budget goes to paying its employees (UC Budget Summary). According to the UCLA Office of the Chancellor website, there are about 42,000 staff and 4300 faculty members. 

Students primarily interact with professors, teaching assistants, dining hall staff, and custodians. However, they represent only a small portion of UCLA’s employees. While exact numbers of administrative employees are not revealed, it is clear that only a small percentage of UCLA employees are personally interacting with students. The growing number of administration staff raises a question as to if the university is spending much of its budget on a growing bureaucracy, rather than focusing on faculty who will directly face students. 

One governing body that directly handles student affairs is the student government: USAC. According to the Daily Bruin every student pays $100.58 on their tuition to USAC. One hundred dollars may seem small compared to the $13,747 in-state tuition or $44,524 out-of-state tuition, but it represents a significant amount when all added up.

As USAC explains in their budget summary of the 2024-2025 school year, the student government is solely funded by the $100 dollar fee in tuition. In the first 50 pages of the 555 page bill summary, $781,000 have been spent on concerts, speakers, fairs, and films. Tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent under the “Commission/Dept related” category with no further explanation.

Events like the Hip Hop Congress or the Jazz Reggae Festival may look good in promotional materials, but when their combined cost exceeds $240,000, their educational value becomes questionable - especially, when these events are not free to students. At a time when student debt is skyrocketing, renting costs are high, and income is low, such spending feels out of touch. 

USAC claims to help individual students and clubs on campus to afford opportunities such as attending conferences, competitions, or other events they’re invited to; however, only $1887 was given to certain students to fund their individual initiatives. For the amount of money USAC has, $1887 is not a lot of money. 

Another large expense of UCLA’s budget is financing its debt: total debt outstanding was $36.3 billion by the end of 2023 (University of California Office of the President, 2023). The debt financing was mostly for renovations and property transfers, such as the purchase of the former Westside Pavillion shopping mall along with seismic improvements to various buildings. While infrastructure improvements can be necessary, the scale and scope of these financial decisions raise concerns.

Investing billions into real estate ventures and long-term construction projects can divert funding away from faculty and student services. Infrastructure improvements can be necessary, but such investments can indirectly divert resources away from important academic services since debt service locks the university into fixed financial obligations for decades to come. 

Most data that is publicly available is pristine: perfect math coupled with vague categories that hide any obvious wasteful spending. Direct examples of inefficiency are hidden behind these broad budget categories, bureaucratic layering, and vague terminology that makes it nearly impossible to trace where the money actually goes. 

Under the California Public Records Act Information (CPRA), public agencies have only 10 days to respond to requests for information. However, UCLA has been involved in multiple lawsuits due to their failure to release data. In 2021, the Freedom Foundation submitted a request for information about employees represented by labor unions. To this request, UCLA officials did not respond for months. Communication was directed through several administrators, each creating and ignoring deadlines. In another case, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) won a lawsuit in 2010 in which UCLA finally released 13 pages of records after “404 days, five extensions, and a lawsuit.”

These incidents point to a broader problem: UCLA’s bureaucracy is complex, and it is unsure where and how money is allocated and spent. Funds for “student services” do not benefit students, and the hundreds of millions in grants and donations get lost in the web of departments. As tuition and fees continue to rise, students and faculty are right to question whether UCLA is operating in their best interest, or serving a growing bureaucratic machine.