Tennessee Higher Education Commission

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) is the body that coordinates the public institutions of higher education and has a working relationship with the private colleges and universities. "THEC was created in 1967 by the General Assembly for the purpose of coordinating and supporting the efforts of the post secondary institutions in the State of Tennessee. One of its statutory requirements is to create a plan for the development of higher education in Tennessee." (http://www.state.tn.us/thec/index.html accessed on Oct 12, 2009). THEC's 21st century mission is to improve the educational attainment of Tennesseans. This is to be accomplished through increased assessibility of high quality teaching and research.
The THEC website if designed to provide general information about the higher education programs available in TN as well as stats and policy analysis related to higher education . The Fact Book is available online and contains a comprehensive report of public higher education in Tennessee (http://www.state.tn.us/GleamFactbook/2008-09FactBook.pdf ). There are four sections in the report. Section 1 is entitled "Enrollment and Transfers" and includes headcounts at all public institutions along with various subdivisions such aas full time, part-time, student level, gender, age, race, off-campus, average ACT scores of incoming freshmetn, undergraduate transfers, along with enrollment trends and more. Section 2 is entitled, "Persistence and Attainment" and provides information on degrees awarded by institution, gender, race, job placement for community colleges, technical center completion and placement rates. The Section 3 is entitled, "Fiscal" and contains a comprehsive analysis of financing of higher education in Tennessee. It includes such topics as state appropriations related to higher education as a percent of state revenue, general tuition and fees overall and by institution, percent of family income needed to pay for college, state appropriations for Tennessee higher education by formula unit, non-formula unit and specialized programs, student support analysis, total revenue per FTE, TSAC non-lottery grants and scholarships, TN education lottery program, peer faculty salary comparisons, average faculty salaries, and more.
THEC administers grant programs from the state and federal government. THEC develops and disseminates the RFPs and receives and selects proposals for funding. One recent grant was the large federal program entitled, "Improving Teacher Quality" which provided funding for higher education to design and conduct professional development for K-12 teachers.
THEC's executive director is Richard G. Rhoda. There are nine lay members with 6-year terms representing congressional districts of the state. There are three constitutional officers who are ex-oficio voting members (Comptroller fo the Treasury, State Treasurer, Secretary of State). There are also two student members, one from the UT system and one from the Board of Regents system, each serving two year terms and only one voting at a time. Lastly, the Executive Director of the State Board of Education is an ex-oficio non-voting member. The board is primarily appointed by the governor and works closely with that office and the legislature.
Information from the THEC website: www.state.tn.us/thec