It will be harder for some high school students to enter UTC this fall, since officials plan to ratchet up admission standards.
Next year, the minimum grade point average will jump from 2.0 to 2.3, and the ACT score requirement will increase from 17 to 18.
UTC Chancellor Roger Brown said the change will improve UTC's freshman retention rate, which now is the lowest in the UT system at 61 percent.
"We are more likely to have students who will succeed," Dr. Brown said. "It will help us bring in a more manageable freshman class."
UTC officials sought approval for an increase in academic standards just as the UT board committees convened to approve proposals for significant cuts to academics and administration.
Although federal stimulus aid will float the UT system in the short term, UT board members are preparing to face cuts of more than $90 million in the next two years.
To weather an oncoming shortfall, the board is proposing 13 academic program cuts and consolidations, a 7 to 9 percent tuition increase on campuses and a $5.6 million cut to system administration.
Trustees will make a final vote on the proposals today.
Dr. Brown said the vote Tuesday was only the first step in improving admission standards at UTC.
Officials plan to recommend increasing the minimum grade point average and standardized test requirements for the next few years.
The move, he said, will improve freshman retention rates by admitting only qualified and well-prepared students. Also, he said, it will stunt enrollment growth.
UTC is awash in applications for the fall and already has filled its on-campus housing. Dr. Brown said administrators are expecting to admit 300 to 400 more freshman than last year.
"Within the last eight years the size of the freshman class has nearly doubled," he said.
If the standards for this fall would have been in effect last fall, 120 of the 2,000 entering freshmen would not have been admitted, said Phil Oldham, UTC provost.
Forty percent of that number would have been minority students, and 50 percent had a grade point average below a 2.0, he said.
Staff Photo by Tim Barber UTC campus
Dr. Brown said he wants to make sure that higher standards don't make higher education inaccessible for certain groups.
"It's a constant juggling act -- high quality and access," he said. "We try to keep a balance."
Tyler Forrest, a UTC senior and student trustee, said he thinks increased admissions standards can improve the quality of education at UTC.
"I really think it is a positive move, because we get to get on par with other institutions," he said. "Anytime you raise standards you are going to exclude some people, but I don't think you will be cutting out any particular class or group of students. You are just creating a better institution."
While UTC will have new standards, the criteria are not absolute, Dr. Oldham said.
Students with a grade point average or standardized test score that fall below will be put on a waiting list. Their applications will be reviewed holistically, and they will be admitted based on space. Some of the students could begin in the spring term when capacity isn't as tight, Dr. Oldham said.
