The School of Music was founded in 1946 as part of the establishment of the Department of Fine Arts but dates itself from the 1947 first offering of the bachelor of arts degree with a major in music. Music courses had been offered for credit for more than a decade within the College of Education, but these classes were taught in the summer school, primarily designed for public school teachers and not taught by UT faculty. In 1953 the bachelor of music degree was approved, and in 1964 the master of arts and master of music degrees were approved. In 1965 the Department of Fine Arts was divided into two units: the Department of Music and the Department of Art. In 1991 the Department of Music and Department of Music Education (for which curricular planning had begun in 1945) were combined into a single unit within the College of Liberal Arts (now Arts and Sciences). In 1999 the name of the music unit was changed to School of Music.