Ranking

Largest business schools in Tennessee by degrees awarded

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville ranks first with 452 master’s degrees in business in 2024–25, according to IPEDS.

34 business schools in Tennessee awarded 2,774 master’s degrees in business to first majors from July 2024 to June 2025, by NCES’s count: 27th of the 51 states and DC with a business school. The University of Tennessee-Knoxville awarded the most, 452. A business school here is a college that awarded at least one master’s degree in any program of NCES’s CIP family 52, Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services: the MBA and every other business master’s alike. The rule is broad by construction.

Master’s degrees in business awarded · July 2024 to June 2025, NCES’s 2025–26 collection

1 more column on a wider screen

Master’s degrees in business awarded, July 2024 to June 2025, NCES’s 2025–26 collection
Rank	Name	Figure	Nationally
1	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville	452	105th of 1,232
2	Vanderbilt University	327	170th of 1,232
3	University of Memphis	208	250th of 1,232
4	Middle Tennessee State University	207	253rd of 1,232
5	East Tennessee State University	125	365th of 1,232
6	The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga	117	380th of 1,232
7	Belmont University	105	412th of 1,232
8	Trevecca Nazarene University	101	423rd of 1,232
9	Tennessee Technological University	84	470th of 1,232
10	Lincoln Memorial University	83	474th of 1,232
11	Bethel University	78	495th of 1,232
12	The University of Tennessee-Martin	77	498th of 1,232
13	Carson-Newman University	74	508th of 1,232
14	Austin Peay State University	68	535th of 1,232
14	Union University	68	535th of 1,232
16	Lipscomb University	67	542nd of 1,232
17	Tennessee State University	59	589th of 1,232
18	Tennessee Wesleyan University	57	608th of 1,232
19	Tusculum University	50	647th of 1,232
20	Christian Brothers University	47	663rd of 1,232
21	Bryan College-Dayton	42	693rd of 1,232
22	Lee University	39	717th of 1,232
23	King University	37	733rd of 1,232
24	South College	36	742nd of 1,232
25	Cumberland University	34	761st of 1,232
25	Freed-Hardeman University	34	761st of 1,232
27	Strayer University-Tennessee	32	787th of 1,232
28	Milligan University	21	917th of 1,232
29	The University of Tennessee Southern	18	963rd of 1,232
30	Rhodes College	10	1,079th of 1,232
31	Johnson University	9	1,091st of 1,232
32	Williamson Christian College	5	1,155th of 1,232
33	Southern Adventist University	2	1,205th of 1,232
34	Omega Graduate School	1	1,222nd of 1,232

What this data cannot show

How a college is organized or accredited is not in NCES’s completions file: a college is of this type because of the degrees it reported, and a university’s whole count is here whichever of its schools awarded them.
First majors only. NCES counts a graduate with two majors under each; this counts each degree once, under the first.
Colleges that awarded the same number share a rank.
The 2025–26 collection is NCES’s newest. Its first release is provisional: institutions’ corrections arrive with the revised file about a year later. NCES imputes the awards of an institution that did not respond, and this table does not mark which.
1 institution in Tennessee in NCES’s file awarded 5 master’s degrees in business and is not ranked here, because it has no college page: it is outside NCES’s First Look universe of colleges that take federal student aid.
The state is the one NCES files the college under; a campus in another state is ranked there.

Sources

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 2025–26 collection — National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education · U.S. Government work · retrieved September 30, 2026
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 2025–26.

Compiled automatically from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 2025–26 collection by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built

Data retrieved September 30, 2026