Leaders at the University of Tennessee announced 2020-2030 as UT’s “Greatest Decade” in February 2020; just three weeks later they suspended classes indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But hey, with Covid under control, campus leaders are racing to catch up. On August 6, 2024, UT System President Randy Boyd updated the Rotary Club of Knoxville on the status. He started west and moved east.
Memphis: The UT Health Science Center has 888 locations across the state in which students or faculty are teaching or working. A new initiative will place dental clinics in rural areas to provide free or low-cost dental care. The medical school is currently not growing because of limited graduate-level medical residency spots available.
Martin: UT Martin is expected to have a 4%-6% increase in enrollment this year. Currently at 7,200 students. UTM has a new chancellor, Yancy Freeman, whose goal is to get UTM to 10,000 students by 2030.
Pulaski: The University of Tennessee Southern is the system’s newest campus. Previously Martin Methodist University, it was acquired by the UT System in 2020 during the pandemic. This campus is in a rural area of south-central Tennessee, which has a strong need for nurses and teachers. Martin Methodist was a private institution with a high tuition that most people in the area could not afford. There was no public four-year college in a 26-county area in that part of the state. With its acquisition into the UT System, tuition has dropped from $26K to $10K per year and enrollment has grown by nearly 30%.
Chattanooga: The University of Tennessee Chattanooga enrollment will be up 4% this year. They currently have 11,000 students, with a goal of reaching 15,000.
Knoxville: The flagship campus will enroll a record number of freshmen this year; a record number of Tennesseans; a record ACT scores average; and a record high school GPA. Combined with a 1.5 increase in retention, UTK will have roughly 2,000 more students on campus this year over last.
Boyd said students are choosing the University of Tennessee because of infrastructure, college rankings and sports. He particularly highlighted the ambassadors, as tour guides are called. “We are really good at selling our university to visitors.”
Myths to dispel
Next, Boyd talked about myths that exist that are deterring people from pursuing higher education and the need for all of us to help dispel those myths. These myths include “No one is really going to college anymore. You can get a great job right out of high school.” Across the country, enrollment rates are down, but not in the state of Tennessee. Over the last five years, enrollment across the state is up 2% and within the UT System, enrollment is up 15%.
Another myth is that “all the good jobs require just a trade school certificate or associate’s degree.” Actually, over the last 10 years, there are 90,000 fewer jobs in the state of Tennessee that require only a high school diploma. During the same period, the number of jobs in the state that require a four-year degree have increased by 379,000 jobs. The state of Tennessee has a shortage of 10,000 engineers. We are also short on nurses and teachers.
The next myth is that “tuition is increasing faster than inflation.” This is simply not true. The national inflation rate over the past five years has been around 5.4% per year, while the UT System’s average tuition has grown by 0.8% per year.
The next myth is “if you go to college, you are going to end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.” In actuality, across the UT System, 47% of students graduate with no debt. Of those that did graduate with debt, the average was $26,000.
The final myth is “only rich kids can go to UT.” That is completely not true. The UT Promise says that any student whose family makes less than $75,000 per year (2/3 of Tennessee families), can go to any one of the UT campuses completely free of tuition and fees.
Q&A
Q: Percentages of in-state vs out-of-state students across the system.
Approximately 67% in-state and 33% out-of-state this year, Boyd said. We are not growing enough Tennesseans to fill all available jobs, so we must import talent from other states in order to continue to grow our economy. The universities are our biggest magnet in attracting and retaining talent, and 40% of all students who come from out-of-state end up staying in Tennessee.
Q: How can we increase the number of engineering degrees coming out of the UT System?
Engineering is the second-fastest growing college at UTK and the fastest growing college at UTC and UTM, Boyd said.
Q: Projected growth at UT Knoxville?
The current goal is to grow UTK from 59,000 to 71,000 students, Boyd said. “Enrollment growth is driven by the needs of the state.”
Q: Number of international students?
The UT System wants to increase the number of international students as Tennessee is currently “under-index” compared to other universities.
Q: How about recruitment from the rural areas?
That’s a high priority, said Boyd. Currently all 95 counties are represented in the UT System and 93 of 95 counties are represented at UT Knoxville. “A new initiative says if you graduate in the top 10% of your class in any Tennessee high school, you are automatically accepted to UTK.
Q: What’s the status of the pedestrian bridge to connect UTK campus to South Knoxville?
The state of Tennessee has allocated $25 million – about 1/3 of the cost. The city of Knoxville applied for a RISE grant from the federal Department of Transportation but were not awarded it this year. The application will be automatically resubmitted next year, Boyd said.
Information from the Rotary Newsletter by Holden Caperton. Shared with Knox TN Today by Brooks Clark from Knoxville Rotary.