Why East Tennessee is the Best Place to Retire: Commitment to Higher Education
East Tennessee, with the state’s flagship campus of the University of Tennessee (UT) located in Knoxville, as well as a number of private and state-funded community and four-year colleges spread throughout the region, offers outstanding opportunities in higher and continuing education. While UT offers the most comprehensive liberal arts curriculum in the region, other schools provide a specialized and foundational body of coursework geared to meet the needs of nontraditional, technical, and other specialized students.
The main campus of the University of Tennessee is located in Knoxville and offers degree programs in more than 300 concentrations to its 26,400 students. UT’s Knoxville campus is beautifully landscaped, well-designed 550 acres and 220 buildings. The University is a top 40 public university overall, and its business program is in the top 25, according to the U.S. News and World Report’s 2007 rankings.
UT also offers a number of continuing education, or noncredit, professional and personal development opportunities. This popular community service reaches out to children through the University’s KidsU program (kids can explore bugs; design web pages; learn about forensics; learn to be a chef; study philosophy; study herpetology, among many other activities), while offering adults courses ranging from animal care and art to yoga, bird watching, and wine tasting.
Working closely with UT, East Tennessee State University (ETSU), and Tennessee Tech University (TTU), Pellissippi State Technical Community College (PSTCC) offers a variety of technical and two-year degrees, as well as four-year degrees in certain fields and a wide range of complementary programs, classes, and campus locations (including distance learning). Transfer students that first attend PSTCC realize substantial savings; many students fulfill their general education requirements at this two-year school, confident that their credit will transfer to an area university thanks to articulation agreements. PSTCC also offers continuing education in many personal enrichment and professional certificate programs such as real estate and tax preparation licensure. For the kids, summer camps in tennis, golf, archery, photography, and the arts are a few of the many available opportunities.
In 2002, Tennessee’s citizens voted to establish the Tennessee Lottery for the purpose of providing scholarships Tennessee citizens. The first scholarships were made available in the fall of 2004. For more information about the history of Tennessee Lottery or the eligibility requirements for lottery scholarships click here. For more information about East Tennessee’s many schools in higher education click here.
