The University of Tennessee at Knoxville wants about 2,000 more students on campus by 2030 than it previously planned, while keeping its overall enrollment goal of 55,000 students unchanged.
The updated 2030 plan lowers the online enrollment goal from 14,000 students to 12,000 while raising the on-campus target from 41,000 students to 43,000.
Provost John Zomchick shared these new figures Oct. 2 during Chancellor Donde Plowman's Advisory Board meeting in the newly opened Torchbearer Hall.
The residence hall is the third dormitory built on campus through a public-private partnership model that UT plans to use again for three more residence hallsbefore 2030 as it pursues a larger on-campus student population.
UT is investing more in online education
through a partnership with Arizona State University and now offers more than 90 online degree and certificate programs for undergraduate and graduate students.
The university welcomed a record 822 new Vols Online undergraduate students this fall, contributing to a total online enrollment of 3,707 students. By 2030, UT aims to enroll roughly 8,000 undergraduates and 4,200 graduate students online.
UT plans to report online enrollment more regularly as those students become a larger share of the university's growth. Online students helped drive a record total enrollment of 41,287 students this fall.
Other enrollment records broken in the fall 2026 semester include:
- Undergraduate enrollment: 33,001
- First-year students: 7,205
- Transfer students: 2,057
Combined with a 93.1% retention rate, a 76.6% six-year graduation rate and a 71.4% four-year graduation rate, the enrollment gains support UT's goal of producing 50,000 additional graduates by 2030 to meet Tennessee workforce needs.
Keenan Thomas is the higher education reporter for Knox News. Email: keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: University of Tennessee adjusts growth plan to have more students on campus
