UT Knoxville buzzes with energy, ideas, and optimism. Great professors and students from throughout the world live and work in a friendly, safe campus community located in scenic East Tennessee. The campus and its signature "Hill" lure students with green space, nearby lakes, and vistas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Students enjoy provocative speakers, great entertainers and artists, a first-class research library, a technology-rich infrastructure, great local music and recreation, nationally competitive athletic teams, and abundant opportunities for community service.

The university is a co-manager with Battelle of the nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Faculty and students experience unparalleled research and learning opportunities at the Department of Energy's largest science and energy lab.

UT Knoxville prides itself on adding value to Tennessee — by educating its students, doing research and creative work that improves quality of life, and reaching out to share expertise with Tennesseans. The University of Tennessee stands in a class by itself as Tennessee's flagship institution and one of the United States' great public research universities.

Founded in 1794 in Knoxville as Blount College; became East Tennessee College in 1807, East Tennessee University in 1840, and the University of Tennessee in 1879. A land-grant university since 1869. Learn more about the history of UT.