About Us
The Budget, Policy & Strategy (BPS) Division of Finance, Planning & Budgeting (FPB) supports the UW community in accomplishing its goals through the planning and allocation of financial and physical resources, and by providing analysis and information services to enhance university decision-making, planning, and policy formation. We partner with UW’s campuses, colleges, schools and units to manage funds, enhance business processes, and make strategic financial decisions and ensure effective fiscal leadership and stewardship of the University’s financial resources. We lead the development of the University's consolidated operating and capital budget and operating and capital budget requests to the state. To accomplish this work, we collaborate with UW stakeholder groups and advisory bodies such as the Provost’s Tri-Campus Advisory Board for Students (TABS), the Faculty Senate Committee on Planning & Budgeting (SCPB), the Board of Deans and Chancellors (BODC) and Administrator’s Council.
The Budget Planning & Operations (BPO) team is responsible for:
- Administering Workday Adaptive Planning, the budget planning and forecasting tool used by the UW Academy. Adaptive Planning gives units across Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell a shared platform for building operating budgets and modeling scenarios. A central feature of Adaptive Planning is bottoms up planning, where units build budgets from the ground up with detailed operating revenue and operating expenses, which then roll up into consolidated campus and university-wide totals. BPO provides training and tools to improve user experience and data quality.
- Core fund allocation and resources stewardship: Leads the allocation and management of core funds, including the Provost Reinvestment Fund (PRF), and develops methodologies for allocating centrally funded costs, ensuring the effective, transparent, and equitable distribution of institutional resources in support of University priorities, strategic investments, and unit operations.
- Budget forecasting, financial analysis, and decision support: developing forecasts, conducting budget and financial analyses, and providing information to support resource planning and informed decision-making by University leadership and campus units. This includes processes for allocating compensation-related funding, state allocations, and other resources.
- Board of Regents financial reporting: preparing the University’s operating budget and financial reports and other analyses, presentations, and supporting materials for the Board of Regents and University leadership.
The Capital Budget and Strategy (CBS) team is responsible for:
- Leading the development of the University's annual capital budget for Board of Regents approval and oversees the preparation and submission of all documentation, data entry, and supporting materials required for biennial and supplemental state capital budget requests.
- Facilitating the Capital Planning Advisory Team (CPAT), a 13-member campus committee charged with strengthening the strategic focus of the University's capital planning efforts. Responsibilities include coordinating policy development and analysis related to capital funding strategies, space management, and capital project implementation. CPAT reviews potential capital investments and advises University leadership on the institution's highest-priority projects for inclusion in annual capital budget submissions and state biennial capital budget requests.
- Strategic communication with the Office of Financial Management (OFM) and legislative staff regarding state-supported capital projects, including the preparation of semiannual Major Project Status Reports.
- Providing financial oversight for capital projects funded through state appropriations, central administration allocations, or institutional debt financing.
The Policy and State Operations (PSO) team is responsible for:
- State and higher education policy and budget analysis: monitors state-level and higher-education related legislation and policy changes, communicates relevant information to stakeholders, collaborates with State Relations to provide legislative feedback to policymakers and prepares the University’s administration for strategic policy discussions. This work entails tracking and evaluating bills and budgets during state legislative sessions, developing state budget requests, and responding to legislative requests for fiscal notes and information.
- Student fee requests and policies: monitors adherence to University and state policies regarding student tuition and fees (as stipulated in RCWs, WAC, and UW Executive Orders and Administrative Policy Statements). This includes managing student tuition and fee rate proposals in consultation with student and faculty advisory bodies, and the development of any associated Board of Regents items.
- Communications and strategic planning: managing the University’s consolidated budget document, which communicates the UW's budget to the Board of Regents and UW community. This team also synthesizes policy and budget information into visual, written, and verbal communications for a variety of audiences, in collaboration with other BPS teams.
Contact Us: For questions or additional information, please contact our staff using the "BPS Leadership and Staff" block.
2027-29 Biennial State Budget Submission: We recently submitted the University’s operating and capital budget requests to the state. You can find more information on PPSO’s State Budget Information page.