University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a public, land-grant, research institution. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) is the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee system and was established in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state. UTK is home to ten undergraduate schools and eleven graduate institutions. There are over 30,000 students enrolled there, from every one of the 50 states and over 100 other countries.

Under former UT President Andrew Holt and now through the UT-Battelle cooperation, the University of Tennessee has maintained strong relations with the adjacent Oak Ridge National Laboratory, opening up extensive research possibilities for staff and students. The University of Tennessee Arboretum, located on 250 acres in neighbouring Oak Ridge, is home to hundreds of species of plants that are native to the area and is part of the university's extensive research facilities. The institution of Tennessee Medical Centre is one of two Level I trauma centres in East Tennessee, and the institution has a close relationship with it.

The University of Tennessee is the only school in the country working on editing assignments for three presidential writings. All three Tennessee presidents—Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson—have archives at this institution. One of its alums, James M. Buchanan, was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics, while nine other graduates have been named Rhodes Scholars. As the first secular university west of the Eastern Continental Divide, UT has the distinction of being one of the oldest public institutions in the United States.