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Tennessee Technological University, popularly known as Tennessee Tech, is an accredited public university located in Cookeville, Tennessee, United States, a city approximately 70 miles east of Nashville. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (1915), and before that as University of Dixie, the name under which it was founded as a private institution in 1909. It places special emphasis on undergraduate education in fields related to engineering and technology, although degrees in education, liberal arts, agriculture, nursing, and other fields of study can be pursued as well. Additionally, there are graduate offerings in engineering, education, business, and the liberal arts. It is operated by the Tennessee Board of Regents, and its athletic teams compete in the Ohio Valley Conference.
As of the 2014 spring semester, Tennessee Tech enrolls more than 10,300 students (9,358 undergraduate and 1,003 graduate students), and its campus has 87 buildings on 235 acres centered along Dixie Avenue in north Cookeville. The average class size is 26 students, and the student to faculty ratio is 20:1. Fewer than one percent of all classes are taught by teaching assistants with the rest of the classes being taught by professors. The ethnic breakdown of the student population is: 81.5% White/Caucasian, 3.8% African American, 2.3% Hispanic, 1.2% Asian/Pacific Islander, 8.4% Non-resident alien, and 2.8% Other.