Higher education’s ‘strategic reinvestment’ plans to now include Utah’s technical colleges

“Strategic reinvestment” has become an oft-repeated catchphrase across Utah’s public college campuses and legislative halls over the past couple of years.

The term defines the state-mandated initiative to shift higher education resources into those academic areas determined to be of highest value to both students and Utah industry.

Such “high value” areas include health care, AI and engineering.

In 2025, the Utah Legislature required the state’s eight degree-granting institutions to reallocate 10% from their respective budgets toward strategic reinvestment initiatives. Each school’s reinvestment plans are being implemented over a three-year period that began last year.

Those ongoing strategic reinvestment efforts at the state’s colleges and universities, reported Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Geoffrey Landward earlier this year, are blazing “a better path to addressing concerns about value in higher education.”

Now “strategic reinvestment” is expanding to Utah’s eight technical colleges.

And while the reallocation plans at the state’s degree-granting colleges were initiated last year by the Utah Legislature, similar plans at technical colleges are being launched by the Utah Board of Higher Education.

On Thursday, the education board voted unanimously to begin moving toward strategic reinvestments at its technical colleges: Bridgerland Technical College, Davis Technical College, Dixie Technical College, Mountainland Technical College, Ogden-Weber Technical College, Southwest Technical College, Tooele Technical College and Uintah Basin Technical College.

While degree-granting institutions typically focus on a broad academic education, technical colleges offer hands-on, career-specific training often leading to certificates.

“The Utah System of Higher Education is investing in programs that are growing, serving more students and meeting the needs of Utah’s economy,” said board vice chair Jon Cox in a news release.

“Strategic reinvestment is about making sure every dollar is working as hard as possible for individual students and the state. We are fortunate to have technical colleges that are such good stewards of these limited resources.”

During Thursday’s board meeting, Landward said some lawmakers had asked him about running formal legislation to expand strategic reinvestment to the state’s technical colleges.

The commissioner responded that another bill wasn’t necessary because the education board was already focused on requiring all higher education institutions — including the technical colleges — to reallocate resources into areas of highest value for students and taxpayers.

While similar in intent, the strategic reinvestment framework for the Utah technical colleges differs in a few key ways from what is happening at degree-granting schools. Technical colleges operate on a different model than the degree-granting institutions. They’re funded differently. Their accreditation is different — as are the standards for program viability accreditation.

“And that means that the program of doing a strategic reinvestment (for technical colleges) is going to look different than it would for a degree-granting institution,” said Landward.

But the commissioner added there’s value in requiring Utah’s technical colleges to also examine their respective programs to ensure cost efficiencies — while maximizing each student’s training and investment.

What will ‘strategic reinvestment’ look like for Utah tech schools?

Utah’s degree-granting colleges and universities are required by the Legislature to reallocate 10% of their state budget dollars toward their strategic reinvestment plans.

But the plan outlined by the higher education board would require half of those percentage amounts — 5% — from the technical colleges. That figure acknowledges that technical colleges have less operational and infrastructure flexibility than the degree-granting schools.

Also, while the Legislature required degree-granting colleges to immediately begin executing their strategic reinvestment plans last year, the higher education board is allowing the technical colleges an “optional planning year” for fiscal year 2027. Then the remainder of their budget reallocations would be implemented in phases over the following three years.

Like their degree-granting counterparts, the technical colleges will meet with UBHE each year for reinvestment plan updates and approvals.

Utah technical colleges: AI already prompting reinvestment

Several Utah technical college presidents participating in Thursday’s meeting noted that their frequent accreditation efforts leave them well-positioned for the UBHE’s strategic reinvestment plan.

Industry advancements have already prompted some schools to revisit, say, AI-impacted programs such as medical coding and billing — and reallocate those resources to high-yield programs such as HVAC and refrigeration.

If a program is not industry-driven, said one president, it does not survive in the technical college atmosphere. It has to be reallocated.

The annual strategic reinvestment reporting, they added, also provides welcome opportunities for Utah’s technical colleges to keep the higher education board updated on each school’s developments and activities.