Tennessee Tech has quadrupled its research funding over the last decade and expects to break into the top 50 research universities nationwide in the coming years.
Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham said the university generated a $7 billion economic impact for the state over the last decade. Research dollars reached nearly $48 million last school year.
“And as Provost Liu has pointed out, we are on track to get even bigger,” Oldham said. “I expect in the next year or two we will break the top 50 research universities in the country, which is, is pretty tall cotton, as we used to say.”
Oldham said Tech has improved its national ranking among research institutions.
“We’ve invested in our people here at Tennessee Tech to a greater extent,” Oldham said. “Average faculty salary has increased by approximately $14,000 over this time period, and more than $24 million put into merit raises and compensation study recommendations.”
Domestic enrollment numbers increased by 7 percent over the last 10 years, and the freshman class size increased by 25 percent. The four-year graduation rate climbed 15 percentage points during the same period, Oldham said.
“So to put that in, in maybe more tangible terms, that’s approximately 500 students a year that are graduating at least 1 year sooner than they would have been graduating, okay, saving them probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 to $30,000 of tangible costs,” Oldham said. “Okay, so when we talk about the cost of a bachelor’s degree, higher education, we all know that about half the cost, maybe a little more than half the cost, is just living expenses.”