From ever-increasing research dollars to affordability and value, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is recognized by many for its high-quality programs and initiatives that prepare students to thrive in a global economy.
As the state's flagship, research-intensive university, UT is the state’s leader in promoting education, research and public service and continues to strengthen its impact on the citizenry of Tennessee.
Academic Reputation
U.S. News and World Report ranks UT Knoxville as 51 among all public universities and 108 among all national universities for 2009. The national universities group includes 262 American universities that offer the comprehensive bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.
U.S. News and World Report also ranked UT's College of Business Administration 24th in the nation among public institutions and 43rd among all national universities. The magazine also gives high rankings to the college's undergraduate program in supply chain management/logistics, which rose to seventh place nationally, up one spot from last year, and fifth among public universities.
The magazine also ranked UT graduate programs among the best in the nation. The supply chain management and logistics program is ranked 10th among all national universities. The School of Art's graduate program in printmaking is fourth in the nation, and the College of Engineering's graduate program in nuclear engineering is ranked 11th nationally.
Forbes Magazine lists UT in its 2009 edition of "America's Best Colleges" based on quality of education and how much graduates achieve after receiving their degree. Forbes also cited UT Knoxville's College of Business Administration as 24 for its MBA program, on a list that contains both public and private institutions.
The Princeton Review lists UT in its 2009 edition of "The Best 368 Colleges,” making the grade with just 15 percent of America's 2,500 four-year colleges chosen.
The Princeton Review also named UT a "Best Southeastern College" for its high standards and outstanding reputation among higher education institutions in the Southeast.
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine ranked UT as one of the top universities in the nation in 2008 for "best value," a measure of the quality of academic programs compared to costs and financial aid.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education ranked UT as a Top 100 Undergraduate Degree Producer institution for minorities in 2008. UT is also a top producer of doctorate degrees for minorities, ranking 29th out of 100, according to the publication which highlights the accomplishments and the needs of African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics and American Indians in higher education,
The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave UT high remarks in its 2009 College Sustainability Report Card for making strides in green initiatives, rating it the greenest university in the state, and among the top four among Southeastern Conference member institutions. UT Knoxville was also the first university in the state to institute a student fee for the purchase of green power.
Make Orange Green, the campus environmental effort, has been honored across the state and nation as one of the top campus environmental programs. UT Knoxville campus environmental programs have been recognized in BusinessWeek and Newsweek magazines.
UT's student body is another sign of the university's strides in academic quality. The new 2008 class of 4,200 entering freshmen had an average core GPA of 3.76 and a 26.6 average ACT score—the highest ever for an entering class.
Thirty-nine percent of this year's incoming freshmen had straight-A averages in high school, as compared with 32 percent last year.
The HOPE Scholarship began in 2004, and last spring the first four-year HOPE Scholarship recipients graduated. UT Knoxville officials say the scholarship has impacted the flagship university more than any institution in the state by increasing applicants, bolstering incoming students' academic preparedness and allowing the university to increase access by creating need-based scholarship programs.
Fifteen of the nation's top students recently accepted the invitation to attend UT Knoxville as the inaugural class of Haslam Scholars—a premier program that offers special opportunities for undergraduate research projects and study abroad.
Graduate students from UT Knoxville recently were awarded prestigious Fulbright and DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) external scholarship grants to study and do research in Europe. A new Office of External Scholarships focuses on helping students compete for these and other top awards like the Rhodes, Marshall and Truman scholarships.
The University of Tennessee is classified as a research university with very high research activity (RU/VH) by the Carnegie Commission.
UT is a key economic driver in the state and its partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supplies the fuel for continued growth and diversification. This partnership formalizes the university's longstanding collaborative relationship with one of the nation's premier research facilities and the U.S. Department of Energy's largest national laboratory
Across the university's campuses and institutes, UT brought in $304.8 million in awards for fiscal year 2007. Leading the way in total awards was the Knoxville campus with $137.5 million, up from $127.9 million in 2006.
Three major National Science Foundation awards since 2007 have vaulted UT Knoxville into the national spotlight with funding for world-leading science and research endeavors.
UT Knoxville is now home to the one of the world's most powerful academic computers. Called Kraken, the computer is funded by a $65 million NSF award—the largest in the history of the UT system. The computer will allow researchers from UT Knoxville and around the world to find answers to humankind's most pressing questions from climate change to drug design.
NSF also recently awarded UT Knoxville $16 million to begin the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), a first-of-its-kind center dedicated to finding creative solutions to major ecological and biological problems from animal disease to wildfire control.
UT Knoxville won the award in competition with many of the nation's other top research institutions. The center will be directed by Louis Gross, a professor of math and ecology and evolutionary biology.
The NSF also has awarded $3 million Integrative Graduate Education Research and Training, or IGERT, awards to two UT Knoxville research groups studying sustainable technology and scalable computing. The centers will bring the nation's top graduate students to UT Knoxville.
ORNL's exciting new facility, its "crown jewel," is the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) research facility. SNS will allow researchers from the United States and all over the world to use neutrons to understand the most fundamental structures and processes of matter, transforming it for uses that were unimaginable even a few short years ago.
UT and ORNL have created joint institutes in areas such as biological sciences, computational sciences, heavy ion research, nanophase materials sciences and neutron sciences. These joint institutes take advantage of the instructional and research strengths offered by the university and the national lab. The partnership also will manage a new $125 million bioenergy research center that will search for ways to produce alternatives to gasoline.
The Bioenergy Science Center, to be located at the Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, will study how to extract cellulose more efficiently from plants such as switchgrass and poplar trees. The results of this research will be used at the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative, a 500,000-gallon-per-year pilot plant for demonstration of switchgrass-to-ethanol conversion.
As research funding increases, UT continues to forge partnerships around the region and the nation.
The Center for Transportation Research is a hub connecting universities across the Southeast in conducting vital research to improve the nation's transportation safety through new approaches and new technologies. The UT Research Foundation is partnering with local, state and national agencies to construct the Innovation Valley Center for Entrepreneurship, a 15,000-square-foot, $2.5 million facility that will house, develop and promote new technology businesses.
The University of Tennessee is moving forward in its mission to be the preeminent public research and teaching university linking the people of Tennessee to the nation and the world.
