The University of Tennessee system (UT system) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of two public university systems, the other being the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR). It consists of four primary campuses in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Pulaski and Martin; a health sciences campus in Memphis; a research institute in Tullahoma; and various extensions throughout the state.
The UT system has a combined student enrollment of more than 49,000 students, over 320,000 living alumni, and a total endowment that tops $1 billion.
History
The University of Tennessee was founded in Knoxville as Blount College in 1794. It became East Tennessee College in 1807, and gained university status in 1840. It was designated as the state's land-grant institution in 1869, and was renamed the "University of Tennessee" in 1879.
The medical campus, the UT Health Science Center, was founded in Memphis in 1911. An adult education extension center was founded in Nashville in 1947.
In 1927, UT founded the University of Tennessee Junior College, and bought the campus of the defunct Hall-Moody Institute, a Baptist institution in the northwest Tennessee town of Martin, to use for the new college. In 1951, the school began awarding bachelor's degrees and became the University of Tennessee Martin Branch. In 1967, the campus was elevated to an autonomous four-year institution under the name of the University of Tennessee at Martin.
In 1968, the UT system was officially formed, with the Knoxville and Martin campuses as primary campuses. That same year, the Tennessee state legislature gave UT permission to establish a campus in Chattanooga, which was the largest city in Tennessee without a public university. The private University of Chattanooga determined that it could not raise enough private capital to compete with a public institution, and agreed to merge with another private school, Chattanooga City College, to form the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1969.
Also in 1968, UT announced plans to expand the Nashville extension center into a full-fledged University of Tennessee at Nashville. Rita Sanders Geier filed a desegregation lawsuit against the state. Geier contended that if UT were allowed to build a campus in Nashville, where Tennessee State University was located, it would perpetuate a dual system of higher education. As a result, the UT Nashville campus was eventually merged with TSU by court order in 1979.
On December 9, 2020, UT's board of trustees unanimously voted in favor of integrating Martin Methodist College into the UT system as UT Southern. This merger is aimed at providing higher education to the residents of rural southern Middle Tennessee. On June 27, 2021 The Tennessean reported that MMC had been fully accepted as a system campus, with the tuition to be adjusted accordingly.
Campuses
There are six educational units of the university system, four of which are separate universities within this statewide higher education system.
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) UT Knoxville is the flagship campus of the UT system, based in Knoxville. The largest university in the state, it has a current total enrollment of 27,523. UT awarded 6,345 degrees in over 300 programs in the 2009-10 academic year.
While not a separate entity, UT Knoxville operates a campus in Nashville that is part of the UT Knoxville College of Social Work. The Nashville Campus awards the M.S.S.W. in conjunction with UT Knoxville.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) UTC is a large university located in downtown Chattanooga. The university was founded as a private school in 1886, joined the UT system in 1969, and currently has over 10,000 students.
University of Tennessee at Martin (UT Martin) Located in rural northwest Tennessee in Martin, UT Martin began in 1900 as Hall-Moody Institute, a private Baptist school. In 1927, the Tennessee Baptist Convention merged Hall-Moody Institute with Union University. The University of Tennessee System took over the former Hall-Moody campus and the school became known as The University of Tennessee Junior College in Martin. It operated under this name until 1951 when four-year fields of study leading to bachelor's degrees were added. The name was then changed to The University of Tennessee Martin Branch. In 1967, it was designated a primary campus in the UT system and was given its current name, The University of Tennessee at Martin. With approximately 8,000 students, UT Martin comprises the main campus in Martin and four extended campuses located in Parsons, Selmer, Jackson, and Ripley.