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University of North Texas

Former names	Former name list Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute (1890–1894) North Texas Normal College (1894–1901) North Texas State Normal College (1901–1923) North Texas State Teachers College (1923–1949) North Texas State College (1949–1961) North Texas State University (1961–1988)[1]
Type	Public research university
Established	1890; 134 years ago (1890)
Parent institution	University of North Texas system
Accreditation	SACS[2]
Academic affiliations	URA ORAU Space-grant
Endowment	$291.6 million (2022)[3]
Budget	UNT: $958 million UNTS: 1.4 billion[4]
Chancellor	Michael R. Williams[5]
President	Neal Smatresk
Provost	Michael McPherson
Academic staff	3,327[6]
Students	46,940 (Fall 2023)[7]
Undergraduates	33,672 (Fall 2023)[7]
Postgraduates	13,268 (Fall 2023)[7]
Location	Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex , Texas , United States 33°12′35″N 97°9′0″W / 33.20972°N 97.15000°W / 33.20972; -97.15000
Campus	1,000 acres (4.0 km2)[8]
Newspaper	North Texas Daily
Colors	UNT Green   White
Nickname	Mean Green
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I FBS – The American
Mascot	Scrappy the Eagle
Website	www.unt.edu

The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. UNT's main campus is in Denton, Texas, and it also has a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas. It offers 114 bachelor's, 97 master's, and 39 doctoral degree programs.^[9] UNT is the flagship member of the University of North Texas System, which includes additional universities in Dallas and Fort Worth. Established in 1890, UNT is one of the largest universities in the United States.^[10]

As of Fall 2023, UNT reached a record enrollment with 46,940 students, making it the largest university in Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the third largest university in Texas, following Texas A&M and UT Austin.^[11] The University of North Texas' main campus is located in Denton, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The main campus spans 900 acres, encompassing the academic district north of I-35E, the Eagle Point athletic district south of I-35E, and Discovery Park. UNT also has a branch campus, UNT at Frisco, which covers 100 acres in the Frisco suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

The University of North Texas is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) by the U.S. Department of Education. UNT is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".^[12] It is designated an Emerging Research University (ERU) by the State of Texas.

The university's athletics teams are the North Texas Mean Green. Its sixteen intercollegiate athletic teams compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. North Texas is a member of the American Athletic Conference. UNT's official school colors are Green and White and its mascot is an Eagle named Scrappy.

Campus

The University of North Texas's main campus is situated in Denton, a town with a population of approximately 150,000, in the northern part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. The university is part of the University of North Texas System and has expanded over the last forty-eight years. In 1975, the university acquired and subsequently developed a medical school in Fort Worth.

In 1981, the university spun off its new medical school as its own independent institution under the UNT Board of Regents.^[13] In 2009, the University of North Texas at Dallas became its own independent institution. That same year, the Texas legislature approved the creation of University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law, opening in 2014 in Downtown Dallas as part of UNT Dallas. UNT and its three sister institutions are governed by the University of North Texas System, a system established in 1980 by the board of regents and legislatively recognized in 2003 by the 78th Texas Legislature.

In 2004, UNT opened UNT Discovery Park – 300 acres (1.2 km²) – in north Denton, with technology incubator facilities dedicated to science and engineering. In 2011, the College of Visual Arts and Design launched the Design Research Center in downtown Dallas in the Design District.^[14]

UNT has a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas. In 2018, UNT opened Inspire Park. UNT teaches nearly 2,000 students in Collin County each semester at Hall Park, Inspire Park and the Collin Higher Education Center in McKinney.^[15] In 2020, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved UNT building a branch campus to provide upper-level and graduate courses on 100 acres donated by the city of Frisco.

Official designations

In 1976, the Carnegie Foundation designated North Texas as a "Class 1 Doctorate-Granting Institution." Four decades later, in February 2016, Carnegie elevated North Texas to its top category – Doctorate-Granting Institutions with "highest research activity."^{[citation needed]}

In 1992, UNT was elected to full membership in the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.^[16][17] an integrated liberal arts curriculum similar to those usually found only in small, private colleges. And, in 2011, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board included UNT as one of eight Emerging Research Institutions in its accountability system.

In 2020, UNT achieved designation from the Department of Education as a Title III & Title V Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) and as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).^[18]

In 2023, the state of Texas established the Texas University Fund (TUF) with the purpose of expanding and supporting research initiatives at four Texas universities, including the University of North Texas, with the goal of elevating them to the ranks of the nation's top universities. The Texas University Fund began with an initial funding of $3.9 billion and receives an annual allocation of $100 million as a permanent endowment.^[19]

Academics

UNT offers 112 bachelor's, 94 master's, and 38 doctorate degree programs as of 2024. These are organized into 14 colleges and schools. UNT has been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1924.^[28] As of 2020,^[update] the university was home to 37 research centers and institutes.^[29][30]

Enrollment

UNT reached a record enrollment of 46,940 in the fall of 2023. It is the largest university in Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and third largest public university in the state of Texas. For the 2022 academic year, the university awarded 12,352 ^[31] degrees. UNT awarded 315 Ph.D. degrees in fiscal year 2022.^[32]

As of 2024, student-faculty ratio at UNT is 26:1 and 29.5 percent of its classes consist of fewer than 20 students. The most popular degrees for 2022 graduates are multi/interdisciplinary studies, psychology, general studies, biological sciences, exercise science, marketing, criminal justice, accounting, education, and finance.^[33] As of 2024, UNT has a student graduation rate^[a] of 60%, compared to the national median 4-year university student graduation rate of 58%.^[34]

Fourteen colleges and schools

The fourteen colleges and schools of UNT:

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences houses 22 academic departments and programs and five public services (including a psychology clinic and a speech and hearing clinic), and eight student services (of which seven are labs).^[35]

College of Science

UNT has been offering Bachelor of Science degrees for 106 years, Master of Science degrees (in biology, mathematics, chemistry, and economics) for 88 years, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in several scientific disciplines—including chemistry, biology, and physics—for 59 years. UNT is a sponsoring institution member (Ph.D.-granting) of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a consortium of 105 major research universities that leverage scientific research through partnerships with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. It has been a member of the consortium since 1954.^[36]

G. Brint Ryan College of Business

The College of Business is host to five academic departments: (i) Accounting, (ii) Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law, (iii) Information Technology and Decision Sciences, (iv) Marketing, Logistics, and Operations Management (v) Management. It offers seven undergraduate programs, fourteen M.B.A. and master of science programs, and six Ph.D. programs. In Fall 2011, the college moved into a new state-of-the-art Gold LEED certified $70 million facility named the Business Leadership Building. The college is accredited in both business and accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business—accreditation for the former stretches back sixty-two years (1961) and the latter, thirty-six years (1987).^[37]

In 2018, 5,093 students were enrolled as business majors at the undergraduate level.^[38]

College of Education

The College of Education is a legacy of the university's founding as a teachers college one hundred and thirty-three years ago. The college is organized as four departments and one center: (i) Counseling and Higher Education, (ii) Educational Psychology, (iii) Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation, (iv) Teacher Education and Administration, and (v) The Kristin Farmer Autism Center. The college offers 12 bachelor's degrees, 19 master's degrees and 15 doctoral concentrations.^{[citation needed]} As of the 2010–2011 school year, the college certified over 1,147 teachers, the second largest number in the state by a university.^[39] In 1979, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved renaming the "School of Education" to the "College of Education." At that time, the college was the largest in Texas and the Southwest, the largest doctoral program in the state, and the twenty-fifth largest producer of teacher certificates in the United States.^[40] Its prior name, "School of Education," dates back to 1946, when the teachers college outgrew itself and reorganized as six schools and colleges.^[41]

College of Engineering

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2024)

The College of Engineering was founded in 2003,^[42] and is host to three research centers, one of which being the Net-Centric Software and Systems Center (launched February 24, 2009), a research consortium hosted by UNT and organized as a National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (NSF I/UCRC). It is primarily funded by industry members (which as of 2012^[update] consist of 16 corporations) and universities (which as of 2012^[update] consist of 5). The focus is developing computing models for the future—models that go beyond applications with preordained fixed capabilities—models capable of services that are dynamically created, verified, and validated in the field and on the fly.

College of Information

The College of Information was created in October 2008 by consolidating two existing academic units: Learning Technologies (formerly within the College of Education) and the School of Library and Information Sciences. The School of Library and Information Services was created in 1970 as an outgrowth of its former structure as the Department of Library Services.^[43] The college sponsors three research centers, one being The Texas Center for Digital Knowledge.

College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism

The College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism houses the largest merchandising program in the nation and one of the largest hospitality and tourism management programs. The college offers bachelor's degrees with majors in digital retailing, home furnishings merchandising, hospitality management, event design & experience management, and merchandising, and master's degrees in hospitality management, international sustainable tourism and merchandising. It has the nation's first bachelor's in digital retailing and master's in international sustainable tourism. The college was formerly known as the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management.^{[citation needed]}

College of Music

The College of Music is a comprehensive institution of international rank.^[44][45] Its heritage dates back one hundred and thirty-three years, when North Texas was founded. The college has the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.^[46][47] It has been among the largest music institutions of higher learning in North America since the 1940s. The music library, founded in 1941, has one of the largest music collections in the United States, with over 300,000 volumes of books, periodicals, scores, and approximately 900,000 sound recordings.^[45] North Texas was first in the world to offer a degree in jazz studies.^[45][48] U.S. News & World Report ranked the jazz studies program as the best in the country every year from 1994, when it began ranking graduate jazz programs, to 1997, when it retired the category.^[49] The One O'Clock Lab Band has been nominated for 7 Grammy Awards.

College of Health and Public Service

Previously called the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (PACS) and before that the College of Community Service, the college adopted its current name in Fall 2017. The college is organized in seven departments: Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology; Behavior Analysis; Criminal Justice; Emergency Management and Disaster Science; Public Administration; Rehabilitation and Health Services; and Social Work.^[50]

UNT and Texas Women's University began a joint Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) program in 2017.^[51]

College of Visual Arts and Design

The College of Visual Arts and Design has the 10th largest enrollment of any art and design school accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and the second largest of any that awards doctorates.^[52] The college name changes reflect the curricular expansion of programs. In 1992, what then had been the "Department of Art" within the College of Arts and Sciences, became "School of Visual Arts;" and in 2007, it became the "College of Visual Arts and Design." Art classes began at UNT in 1894, four years after its founding. Master's degrees were initiated in the 1930s and the first Master of Science degree in art was awarded in 1937.^[53] Since 1972, the college has served as curator and custodian of the Texas Fashion Collection^[54] that was started by Stanley Marcus in 1938.

Honors College

The Honors College offers academic enrichments, including honors seminars and exclusive classes for high-achieving undergraduates. Its objective is to challenge exceptional students at higher levels and to promote leadership. The college is an autonomous collegiate unit on equal footing with the other collegiate units. Academically, it offers no degrees; but its courses are integrated with the baccalaureate programs of the other ten constituent colleges and the journalism school. Graduates are awarded a special medallion.^[55]

Mayborn School of Journalism

Curricular journalism at North Texas dates back to 1945. As a department, Journalism eventually became part of the College of Arts and Sciences. The Graduate Division of Journalism began in the fall of 1970 under the direction of Reginald Conway Westmorland.^[56] In 1999, twelve years after the death of Frank W. Mayborn, its graduate program was renamed the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. On September 1, 2009, the entire program was elevated as its own collegiate unit and named the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism. Eight Pulitzer Prizes have been won by five of its alumni, among whom are Bill Moyers and Howard Swindle. Other notable alumni include Samir Husni and Cragg Hines. Since 1969, the news-editorial sequence has been accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications; and since 1986, the entire program has been accredited. The school is in its nineteenth year as founding host of the annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.^{[citation needed]}

Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science

TAMS is a two-year residential early college entrance program that has, since 1987, served exceptionally qualified Texas students who otherwise would be attending high school as juniors and seniors. It was the first of its kind in the nation and, as of 2012^[update], the only in the state and one of five in the nation.^{[citation needed]}

Toulouse Graduate School

The Toulouse Graduate School, founded seventy-seven years ago,^[57] is the academic custodian and administrator of all graduate programs offered by nine colleges and one school. It maintains records, administers admissions, and serves various roles in recruiting. It was renamed in 1990 in honor of Robert Bartell Toulouse, EdD (1918–2017), who joined in 1948 as a professor in the College of Education, then served dean of the Graduate School from 1954 to 1982. Toulouse, before retiring as professor emeritus, had served other roles at the university, including provost and vice president of academic affairs from 1982 to 1985.^{[citation needed]}

Libraries

UNT Libraries are made up of four public service points and two remote storage facilities. Willis Library is the main library on campus, housing the business, economics, education, humanities and social sciences collections along with microforms and special areas such as the Music Library, Government Documents, the Digital Library Division, Archives, and the Rare Book and Texana collections. The Media Library in Chilton Hall houses a large collection of audiovisual materials, including films, audiobooks, and video games (see Game Design, above). Video recording equipment and gaming consoles are available for checkout. The Sycamore Library houses the government documents, law, political science, geography and business collections. It also houses the Collaboration and Learning Commons, a place to study in groups, create multi-media projects, and record presentations. The Discovery Park Library supports the College of Engineering and the College of Information, Library Science, and Technologies. It covers multiple areas of engineering, library and information science, and learning technology.

The Intensive English Language Institute (IELI)

Established in 1977, IELI is the largest intensive English program (IEP) in North Texas,^{[citation needed]} serving international students who wish to learn academic English in preparation for university studies in the United States. IELI is a constituent of UNT International Affairs, an interdisciplinary unit and exponent of globalization in higher education that provides leadership and support of international teaching, research, and study-abroad initiatives. As of July 2015^[update], IELI has been located in Marquis Hall on the UNT Denton campus.

Student life