In 1968 a study initiated by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission recommended that a baccalaureate program in nursing should be implemented at UT in Knoxville and that the existing master’s program should be relocated from Memphis to Knoxville. In 1969 the legislature accepted the recommendation and mandated that a School of Nursing be established in Knoxville. Two years of planning were required before the school opened July 1, 1971.
With the establishment of the BSN program, the UT Hospital’s diploma school of nursing was phased out, graduating its last class in 1974. The School of Nursing became the College of Nursing in 1977. In 1977–78 a master’s program was added, and a doctoral program was added in 1988.