That was the case for me and I graduated about 2 years ago. Professors were paying from their salary to get e.g. Matlab. More specifically, software is usually

That was the case for me and I graduated about 2 years ago. Professors were paying from their salary to get e.g. Matlab. More specifically, software is usually not a direct expense so it needs to be paid from the grant overhead, but the university frequently wants to build new buildings or something else instead. It's the same for private government contractors.