East Tennessee State University is an commissioned university operated by the Tennessee Board of Regents using its primary campus inside Johnson City, Tennessee. It began as a normal school to educate teachers and was later on expanded into the college sustaining the big range of liberal arts offerings, and developed into the to the full university in the 1960s. Postgraduate software include the fully licenced medical school, the Quillen College of Medicine, known as inside honor of U.S. Congressman James H. Quillen who successfully fought for its creation in the 1970s. Around 2005 a College of Pharmacy was sanctioned which may more augment the medicine at ETSU. ETSU has been more & more noted for its Appalachian Studies software download & features the nationally acclaimed & licenced program around Bluegrass and Country and western. Recording star Kenny Chesney, 2004 Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year, is one of many noted graduates of this program.

Athletic teams, nicknamed the Sea rover, compete in the NCAA Division I Atlantic Sun Conference. A 2005 move from a Southern Conference was an indirect result of ETSU's guide to drop football after the 2003 season.