The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is the established by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1900, primarily to achieve coordination between the various public higher education institutions in the state.
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The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) is composed of one "lay" member from each of the state's nine Congressional districts, appointed to six-year terms, the three state constitutional officers (Secretary of State, State Treasurer and Comptroller of the Treasury), two student commissioners serving staggered two-year terms (one each from the University of Tennessee system and the Tennessee Board of Regents system, with voting rights only during the second year of the term, assuring only one voting student-member at a time), and the executive director of the State Board of Education, a nonvoting member. With a maximum total vote of 13 at any one time, the majority required for action to be taken is usually seven votes.
In recent years, the THEC's major purpose has been to arbitrate between the competing demands of the University of Tennessee system and the Board of Regents system. Neither body can establish entirely new academic programs, for example, without THEC approval. THEC support is also vital for institutions to receive capital allocations for new buildings and other projects requiring major capitalization. THEC also is the official approving agency in Tennessee for any postsecondary institution, public or private, desiring to enroll students receiving veterans' benefits from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs such as those available under the G. I. Bill of Rights.
Governor Phil Bredesen proposed that if reelected in November 2006 he would recommend overhaul of the Tennessee system of higher education in 2007; the three separate boards overseeing it (THEC, The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees, and the Tennessee Board of Regents) have long been criticized as competing interests that drain resources away from actual higher education to a duplicative system of administration and coordination.