How the University of Tennessee's graduate programs fared in 2024 national rankings

Graduate programs and schools at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville ranked highly in new rankings from U.S. News and World Report.

The organization released its "2024-2025 Best Graduate Schools" report April 9, which ranks graduate programs and schools across public and private universities nationally. The report covers programs and schools in business, education and law. The rankings for engineering, medical and psychology will be updated later this year.

The top graduate program at UT is supply chain, which ranked fourth nationally. The Haslam College of Business tied for 47th for its full-time graduate programs.

The College of Social Work tied for 24th nationally, and the College of Law tied for 52nd nationally.

The College of Nursing doctoral program tied for 34th.

UT graduate programs ranked high among public universities

Narrowing down to just public universities, several programs and schools jumped in rankings.

Among public universities, the Haslam College of Business ranked 22nd for full-time graduate school programs and supply chain programs ranked third.

Additionally, the College of Social Work ranked 13th, the College of Nursing doctoral program ranked 24th and the College of Law ranked 26th among public universities.

University of Tennessee students walk past the student union and the Haslam College of Business during class change on the first day of the spring semester on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022.
University of Tennessee students walk past the student union and the Haslam College of Business during class change on the first day of the spring semester on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022.

Under the College of Law, legal clinical programs ranked eighth, business-corporate law ranked 13th, health care law ranked 21st and legal writing ranked 21st.

“The rankings this year provide evidence that UT has exceptional graduate programs across a wide range of disciplines,” dean of the Graduate School Dixie Thompson said in a press release. “These rankings are a reflection of the commitment to excellence made by our faculty, staff and students.”

Previous rankings for University of Tennessee graduate programs

UT has several programs ranked highly from previous years.

Printmaking programs are tied for UT's highest overall program ranking at fourth nationally.

Nuclear engineering at seventh. UT occupies the 10th spot for "Best Library and Information Studies Programs," along with school library media tied at 13th and digital librarianship tied at 14th. Under the law school, clinical training tied for 19th.

A few of UT's graduate schools are still ranked from previous years:

  • College of Veterinary Medicine tied for 21st

  • Physics (in the College of Arts and Sciences) tied for 55th

  • Tickle College of Engineering tied for 55th

What is the U.S. News and World Report?

U.S. News and World Report is a media company well known for its "Best" rankings, including university rankings for prospective students. For the "Best Graduate Schools" rankings, the organization evaluates programs and schools in disciplines including business, education, engineering, law and nursing based on expert opinion and statistical data.

Research for these rankings began in fall 2023 through early 2024. The organization used surveys of 2,225 programs sent to approximately 5,766 academics and 10,941 professionals to rank the programs within the six main disciplines.

Correction: A previous version misstated which graduate programs and schools received new rankings at the University of Tennessee. UT's business, law and social work colleges and the nursing doctoral program had new rankings.

Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter @specialk2real.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: University of Tennessee graduate schools rank U.S. News World Report