In 1951, the school began awarding bachelor's degrees and became the University of Tennessee Martin Branch.

In 1967, the campus was elevated to an autonomous four-year institution under the name of the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Geier contended that if UT were allowed to build a campus in Nashville, where Tennessee State University was located, it would perpetuate a dual system of higher education.

As a result, the UT Nashville campus was eventually merged with TSU by court order in 1979.

This merger is aimed at providing higher education to the residents of rural southern Middle Tennessee.

[4][5] On June 27, 2021 The Tennessean reported that MMC had been fully accepted as a system campus, with the tuition to be adjusted accordingly.

The university was founded as a private school in 1886, joined the UT System in 1969, and currently has over 10,000 students.

It operated under this name until 1951 when four-year fields of study leading to bachelor's degrees were added.

In 1967, it was designated a primary campus in the UT system and was given its current name, The University of Tennessee at Martin.

As a consequence of a planned meeting between then-Acting System President Randy Boyd (later named the system's permanent head) and Martin Methodist College President Mark La Branche in 2020 about the plans for UT to open an Agricultural Extension Office in MMC's hometown of Pulaski, a wider-ranging discussion ensued about the low level of affordable higher educational opportunities in Southern Middle Tennessee.

On June 27, 2021 The Tennessean reported that the merger had been consummated, with La Branche to serve as the first chancellor of the campus as a unit of the UT system designated the University of Tennessee Southern.

[7] The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) has its main campus in Memphis.

UT Knoxville and Battelle Memorial Institute are 50–50 partners in UT-Battelle, which manages the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the United States Department of Energy.