University of North Texas
The University of North Texas is a public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, United States. Its main campus is in Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco. It serves as the flagship of the University of North Texas System, which also includes universities in Dallas and Fort Worth. UNT offers 114 bachelor's, 97 master's, and 39 doctoral programs. Founded in 1890, it was the 24th largest university in the United States by enrollment in 2023.
UNT is classified as an "R1: Doctoral University – Very high research spending and doctorate production" by the Carnegie system, the highest Carnegie designation for U.S. research institutions. It is designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution and Minority-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. UNT is also designated an Emerging Research University by the State of Texas and is one of four universities supported by the Texas University Fund. TUF was established with an initial funding of $3.9 billion and receives an additional annual allocation of $100 million as a permanent endowment, aiming to elevate participating universities into the top tier of national research institutions.
As of fall 2024, UNT enrolled 46,180 students, making it the fourth-largest university in Texas. It is also the largest university in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. UNT shares Denton with Texas Woman's University, the largest primarily women's university in the United States. UNT's main campus covers, with academic buildings to the north and athletic facilities, including DATCU Stadium, to the south. The university's research park, Discovery Park, spans and lies about five miles to the north.
The university's athletic teams are the North Texas Mean Green. Its sixteen intercollegiate athletic teams compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. North Texas is a member of the American Athletic Conference. UNT's official school colors are green and white and its mascot is an Eagle named Scrappy.
Campus
The University of North Texas's main campus is located in Denton, a city of approximately 170,000 in the northern part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As the flagship of the University of North Texas System, UNT has steadily expanded its physical presence since 1975, when it acquired a medical school in Fort Worth.In 1981, the medical school was reorganized as a separate institution under the UNT Board of Regents. In 2009, the University of North Texas at Dallas became the system's second stand-alone university, and that same year, the Texas Legislature approved the creation of the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law, which opened in 2014 in Downtown Dallas. The UNT System itself was established by the board of regents in 1980, 90 years after the founding of the university, and formally recognized by the 78th Legislature in 2003.
In 2004, UNT opened Discovery Park in Denton, a research and technology campus located five miles north of the main campus. It houses facilities focused on science, engineering, and innovation. In 2011, the College of Visual Arts and Design opened the Design Research Center in Dallas's Design District.
To extend access to its academic and research programs, UNT Denton established a satellite campus in Frisco, a suburban city in the northern Dallas–Fort Worth area. Frisco is located approximately 30 miles north of downtown Dallas and 25 miles east of Denton. In 2018, UNT at Frisco opened Inspire Park and now serves about 2,000 students each semester across several Frisco and Collin County sites, including Hall Park and the Collin Higher Education Center in McKinney. In 2020, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the development of a new UNT branch campus on a site donated by the city of Frisco.
Academics
UNT offers 114 bachelor's, 97 master's, and 39 doctoral degree programs as of 2024. These are organized into 14 colleges and schools. UNT has been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1925. the university was home to 37 research centers and institutes. Twelve discipline-based academic units comprise the university's academic structure — including eleven colleges and the Mayborn School of Journalism — along with the Honors College, the Toulouse Graduate School, and the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, a selective residential program for high school juniors and seniors, in which students complete their final two years of high school while earning two years of transferable college credit.In 1976, the Carnegie Foundation designated North Texas as a "Class 1 Doctorate-Granting Institution." Four decades later, in February 2016, it was reclassified as a Doctoral University with "Highest Research Activity," also known as the R1 category. In 1992, UNT was elected to full membership in the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. In 2011, it was designated an Emerging Research Institution by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
In 2020, the university received dual federal designations from the U.S. Department of Education as a Minority-Serving Institution and a Hispanic-Serving Institution, making it eligible for federal grants under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act. In 2023, the state of Texas established the Texas University Fund to expand and support research initiatives at four Texas universities, including the University of North Texas, to elevate their national profiles. The Texas University Fund began with an initial funding of $3.9 billion and receives an annual allocation of $100 million as a permanent endowment.
College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
The College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences houses 22 academic departments and programs and five public services, and eight student services.College of Science
UNT has been offering Bachelor of Science degrees for years, Master of Science degrees for years, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in several scientific disciplines—including chemistry, biology, and physics—for years. UNT is a sponsoring institution member of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, a consortium of 105 major research universities that leverage scientific research through partnerships with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. It has been a member of the consortium since 1954.Department of Physics
The College of Science's Department of Physics houses a distinctive research facility, the Ion Beam Laboratory, which conducts multidisciplinary research using medium-energy ion accelerators. IBL supports analytical and materials science research through techniques such as particle-induced X-ray emission, Rutherford backscattering, elastic recoil detection, nuclear reaction analysis, ion microlithography, and ion beam-induced charge collection.The facility includes four accelerators: a 3 MV tandem Pelletron, a 3 MV single-ended Pelletron, a 2.5 MV Van de Graaff accelerator, and a 200 keV Cockcroft–Walton accelerator. These systems enable beamline setups for ion implantation, scanning transmission ion microscopy, and high-energy focused ion beam microprobe analysis. The IBL occupies approximately in the Physics Building and supports graduate research, external collaborations, and experimental development across multiple disciplines. UNT has hosted the Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry in even-numbered years since 1976.
Department of Biology
The College of Science's Department of Biological Sciences supports interdisciplinary research in environmental science, ecology, and molecular biology through a range of specialized facilities. The Life Sciences Complex includes more than of LEED Gold-certified research space, including rooftop greenhouses and one of the nation's largest university aquatics labs. The department also operates the Water Research Field Station and Artificial Stream Facility, among the few in the U.S. designed to assess the ecological impact of agrichemicals under controlled field conditions. UNT researchers maintain global collaborations, including a freshwater research and environmental philosophy field station established in 2011 in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve in Chile. UNT's work in limnology dates back to the 1930s under pioneer Joseph Kean Gwynn Silvey, and continues today through its aquatic ecology labs and the Institute of Applied Science.The Water Research Field Station and the Artificial Stream Facility are located in Ponder, about 10 miles west of UNT's main campus, near the university's Rafes Urban Astronomy Center and Soil Conservation Service Site Number 12 Reservoir.
G. Brint Ryan College of Business
The College of Business is host to five academic departments: Accounting, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law, Information Technology and Decision Sciences, Marketing, Logistics, and Operations Management, and Management. It offers seven undergraduate programs, fourteen M.B.A. and master of science programs, and six Ph.D. programs. In Fall 2011, the college moved into a new state-of-the-art Gold LEED certified $70 million facility named the Business Leadership Building. The college is accredited in both business and accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business—accreditation for the former stretches back years and the latter, years.In 2018, 5,093 students were enrolled as business majors at the undergraduate level.