The University of Tennessee, Knoxville joined The Global Undergraduate Awards network in 2015, and became an official partner in 2017. The first public research university chartered west of the Appalachian Divide, The University Tennessee, Knoxville was founded in 1794. With almost 28,000 students spanning 10 undergraduate schools and 11 graduate colleges. It is part of the University of Tennessee system, which includes four other Tennessee institutions. UTK is recognised by the Carnegie Classification for its high level and standard of research.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville has continued to grow its submission numbers since students first submitted in 2015. In total, UTK has seen over 100 submissions since 2015, growing from 8 in 2015 to 40 in 2019. Since becoming a partner university, there has without doubt, been a strong increase in submissions, as well as increased interest from students and staff about the Awards. UTK students have received 7 Highly Commended recognitions, one Regional Winner title, and one Global Winner title to Alexandra Brito in 2017 for the Language & Linguistics category since first submitting in 2015.

A number of UTK students and staff have also had the opportunity to attend the Global Undergraduate Summit over the last few years. Hosted in Dublin each November, the Summit offers a great platform for students to network, meet graduate recruiters, and present their research. To date, all of them have really enjoyed their experience and appreciate the opportunity to attend such a prestigious event.

From 2018 to 2019, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville more than doubled their number of submissions, going from 19 to 40. In these submissions, students submitted to 14 different categories this year, with the most submissions going to the Architecture and Design category. This wide variety of submissions increased from 2018, when students submitted to 10 of the 25 categories. For the past three years, The Global Undergraduate Awards also has judges from UTK, showing not only a commitment to the program and partnership by the students, but also the faculty.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville has continued to grow its submissions numbers and is an active member in The Global Undergraduate Awards network over the past few years and we look forward to collaborating together long into the future.