TBR 2035
BUILDING
Tomorrow's
College
Strategic plan
TBR'S MISSION: STUDENT SUCCESS & WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
THE COLLEGE SYSTEM OF TENNESSEE
Established by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1972, the Tennessee Board of Regents is the state’s open-access system of community and technical colleges. Today, our 13 community colleges and 24 Colleges of Applied Technology (TCATs) serve Tennesseans through hundreds of credit and non-credit programs. These programs reach one in every 40 Tennessee residents, with more than 22,000 students graduating each year.
For the last quarter century, TBR has been at the forefront of innovation in student success and workforce development. Annual degree production exceeded goals set by the state’s Drive to 55, and graduation rates for first-time freshmen at community colleges more than doubled over the past decade. Dual enrollment of high school students in postsecondary courses has surged 139% since 2015, and our presence in all 11 state correctional facilities reflects our commitment to serving every Tennessean.
A LEGACY OF STUDENT SUCCESS AND INNOVATION
With persistent student access and success challenges, TBR has prioritized innovation from its earliest days. Across colleges and the system office, generations of faculty and staff have built a national reputation for excellence in learning support, high-impact teaching practices, workforce alignment, and data-driven improvements. Over time, our ability to collaborate with partners in state government and industry has grown dramatically.
This progress stems not just from good ideas of clever faculty and staff, but from the structure, courage, and patience required to harness innovation. We have found new ways to help students succeed, sometimes with a burst of insight but more often through improvements that compound over time as a function of a relentless pursuit of a better way. TBR is proud of the faculty and staff across the system who have found new ways, both big and small, to help students succeed.
BUILDING ON A STRONG FOUNDATION
TBR’s Strategic Plan is grounded in three key pillars. These pillars provide a framework for how TBR pursues its mission of student success and workforce development.
Open Access:
TBR is an open-access community and technical college system that serves students of all backgrounds, demographics, income levels, readiness, or circumstances, and is committed to meeting student, workforce, and community needs for education and training.
Completion:
TBR values completion and is committed to helping students address and confront any existing barriers to completing their programs, whether students are pursuing a transfer degree, a diploma, a short-term certificate, other credential, or another professional or personal goal.
Community & Workforce Development:
TBR is committed to improving the condition of individuals, families, and communities across the state, which manifests itself in tangible ways such as economic vitality and mobility, but also by improving and enriching the communities we serve.
DESIGNING THE COLLEGE OF THE FUTURE
With a foundation of student success and innovation, TBR turns its attention to the decade ahead. In 2025, TBR gathered college faculty and staff, student leaders, and key state partners to explore what the college future could be and how we begin to move toward that reality. The ensuing conversations centered around three central questions:
- WHAT WILL TENNESSEE NEED FROM COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN 2035?
- IF WE COULD BUILD THE IDEAL OPEN-ACCESS COLLEGE, WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE?
- BUILDING FROM A LEGACY OF INNOVATION AND A STRONG FOUNDATION, HOW DO WE BUILD THE COLLEGES OF THE FUTURE?
TBR’s core values shape our answers. As we pursue our mission of Student Success and Workforce Development, we must do so with sustained attention on how TBR can harness the power of innovation. The commitment to innovation will drive us to reimagine instruction, rethink processes, and reinvest in partnerships that enable us to serve our students better.
At an open-access system of colleges, we serve students who face a wide range of barriers. As we build the college of the future, TBR is committed to meeting every student where they are to help them overcome obstacles that stand in their way. To do so, we must confront and address barriers where they exist, including barriers rooted in income, age, academic preparation, geography, or life and family circumstances. Regardless of the challenge, TBR endeavors to help each student succeed, whether that means earning a credential, transferring to a university, or launching a career.
This vision is not abstract. TBR aims to anchor our work in the lives of Tennesseans, from the third grader who will enter college in 2035 to the working parent who enrolls to build their family’s future, and the 22-year-old who left college but will return in 2035 to finish what they started. These Tennesseans embody our ambition to build the best system of open-access higher education in the nation.
BUILDING TOMORROW'S COLLEGE
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2025-35
TBR’s 2015-2025 Strategic Plan was grounded in Tennessee’s goal to achieve 55 percent of adult Tennesseans with a postsecondary credential. It defined TBR’s identity through three enduring pillars: our open-access mission, our focus on postsecondary completion, and our commitment to community & workforce development.
With these pillars as our foundation, the 2025-35 Strategic Plan identifies three strategic priorities. Shaped through a collaborative strategic planning process in 2025, these priorities establish actionable areas of policy and practice for the decade ahead. These strategic priorities and the practices that follow are designed to serve as a guide to help TBR discern where to expend energy, resources, and efforts to build a system that meets the needs of Tennesseans.
Choose a Priority to Learn More
CONNECT ACADEMIC PATHWAYS AND STUDENT EXPERIENCES TO CAREER OPPORTUNITIES.
LEARN MOREIMPROVE THE COLLEGE PROCESSES THAT SHAPE THE STUDENT'S JOURNEY BY CENTERING STUDENT SUCCESS.
LEARN MORECOLLABORATE WITHIN THE SYSTEM AND WITH PARTNERS TO MAXIMIZE OUR RESOURCES AND OUR EFFORTS.
LEARN MOREDeveloping the Strategic Plan
TBR began this journey in January 2025 by convening a Steering Committee to guide our deliberations and shape the recommendations that would be presented to the Board for consideration. This Steering Committee, comprised of Board members, presidents, vice-presidents, students, public policy partners, business and industry representatives, and K-12 partners, deliberated over the course of several meetings about how to build tomorrow’s college.
Supplementing these discussions, TBR engaged numerous focus groups, including student leaders, representatives from the business community, college access partners, other state agencies, and national leaders from higher education organizations. Throughout the process, the full Board received updates at each quarterly meeting and dove deeply into the material with college presidents at the 2025 spring retreat, whose theme was the development of the TBR Strategic Plan.
Strategic Plan Resources
- Prior TBR Plans:
- Current College Plans: