Who We Are

The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) system consists of 45 institutions with a combined annual enrollment of over 190,000 students, making it the nation's sixth largest system of public higher education. TBR's six state universities, 13 community colleges, and 26 technology centers offer classes in 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties. The TBR system is a $2.2 billion per year enterprise.

The Tennessee Board of Regents was created in 1972 by the General Assembly as the governing body of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee. At that time, the member institutions of the system were the six state universities and ten community colleges formerly governed by the Tennessee Board of Education. In 1983, the General Assembly transferred the technical institutes and area vocational schools (now called Tennessee Technology Centers) to the Tennessee Board of Regents. The University of Tennessee is a separate system with its own Board of Trustees. The Board of Regents and the UT Board of Trustees are coordinated by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

The composition of the Tennessee Board of Regents is set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated 49-8-201. The board consists of 18 members:  12 lay citizens appointed for six-year terms by the governor, with one each from the state's nine congressional districts and three grand divisions; one faculty member from among the system institutions appointed by the governor for a one-year term; one student from among the system institutions appointed by the governor for a one-year term ; and four ex-officio members--the Governor of Tennessee, the Commissioner of Education, the Commissioner of Agriculture, and the Executive Director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, who is a non-voting member.