USG Facts

The Board of Regents

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia was created in 1931 as a part of a reorganization of Georgia’s state government. With this act, public higher education in Georgia was unified for the first time under a single governing and management authority. The governor appoints members to the Board, who each serve seven years. Today the Board of Regents is composed of 18 members, five of whom are appointed from the state-at-large, and one from each of the 13 congressional districts. The Board elects a chancellor who serves as its chief executive officer and the chief administrative officer of the University System.

The Board oversees the 35 colleges and universities that comprise the University System of Georgia, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and The Georgia Public Library System. These institutions enroll approximately 318,000 students and employ approximately 41,680 faculty and staff members to provide teaching and related services to students and the communities in which they are located.

The System

The University System of Georgia, a part of the community in each of Georgia’s 159 counties, provides services across the state. The University System is composed of 35 higher education institutions including 4 research universities, 2 regional universities, 13 comprehensive universities, 14 state colleges, 2 two-year colleges and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. The Georgia Public Library System, encompassing approximately 389 facilities in 61 library systems throughout Georgia, is also part of the University System.

University System of Georgia 75th Anniversary

Degrees, Majors and Rankings

System institutions conferred a total of 54,855 degrees in Fiscal Year 2011 consisting of 32,397 bachelor’s, 10,644 master’s and 1,346 doctorate degrees.

The majority of baccalaureate-level degrees in the USG are awarded in the fields of business, education and nursing.

Georgia is one of five states with two or more institutions ranked among the top 25 national public colleges and universities in the 2012 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings. Georgia Tech is ranked No. 7 on the list and the University of Georgia is one of two universities tied at No. 23.

Enrollment

The University System of Georgia enrolled a record of approximately 318,027 students for the Fall of 2011.

Higher Education

For recent University System of Georgia graduates, a college degree is worth an average of $21,000 a year more than a high-school graduate can expect to make. Over the course of a working career, the average graduate of a public college or university in Georgia can expect to earn nearly $1 million more than a high-school-educated neighbor.

Funding, Budget and Economic Impact

The University System employs 41,680 faculty and staff.

A recent ICAPP economic impact study, conducted by UGA’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, revealed that in Fiscal Year 2009 Georgia’s public colleges and universities generated 130,738 full- and part-time jobs – 3.4 percent of all the jobs in the state and infused $12.6 billion into Georgia’s economy.

ICAPP’s workforce development projects have resulted in more than 5,000 additional graduates in industries with critical workforce shortages.

ICAPP brings USG resources to Georgia’s economic development team, playing a key role in major relocations to Georgia in recent years including NCR headquarters, GE Energy Smart Grid Technology Center of Excellence, and ThyssenKrupp’s IT headquarters.

More than 2,300 Georgians have become licensed health professionals (registered nurses, pharmacists, medical technologists, imaging professionals and more) through the first four phases of the ICAPP Health Professionals Initiative. In Phase 5, 10 registered nurses are on track to become Master of Science in Nursing-prepared nursing faculty by June 2012, in a project that addresses a major obstacle to educating more nurses—the shortage of nursing faculty.

The University System’s total annual budget from all fund sources, state appropriations, tuition, fees, grants and contracts and other sources, is $6.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2011 and also in Fiscal Year 2012.

The System’s budget as a percentage of the total state budget is 9.6 percent in FY2012 or $1.7 billion.

The System owns over 3,200 buildings with 68 million gross square feet, the largest owned inventory of any state agency. Through its Public Private Ventures program, the System has developed 6 million gross square feet of building space, over 40,000 housing beds, and 27,700 structured parking spaces that will be owned by the System upon the retirement of project debt.

Campuses of the University System of Georgia

Research Institutes	President	Phone
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography	Dr. James G. Sanders	912-598-2400
Research Universities	President	Phone
Georgia Health Sciences University	Dr. Ricardo Azziz	706-721-0211
Georgia Institute of Technology	Dr. G.P. "Bud" Peterson	404-894-2000
Georgia State University	Dr. Mark P. Becker	404-413-2000
University of Georgia	Dr. Michael F. Adams	706-542-3000
Regional Universities	President	Phone
Georgia Southern University	Dr. Brooks A. Keel	912-478-4636
Valdosta State University	Dr. Louis H. Levy (Interim)	229-333-5800
State Universities	President	Phone
Albany State University	Dr. Everette J. Freeman	229-430-4600
Armstrong Atlantic State University	Dr. Linda Bleicken	912-344-2503
Augusta State University	Dr. William A. Bloodworth, Jr.	706-737-1632
Clayton State University	Dr. Thomas J. “Tim” Hynes	678-466-4000
Columbus State University	Dr. Timothy S. Mescon	706-507-8800
Fort Valley State University	Dr. Larry E. Rivers	478-825-6211
Georgia College & State University	Dr. Stas Preczewski (Interim)	478-445-5004
Georgia Southwestern State University	Dr. Kendall A. Blanchard	800-338-0082
Kennesaw State University	Dr. Daniel S. Papp	770-423-6000
North Georgia College & State University	Dr. Bonita Jacobs	706-864-1400
Savannah State University	Dr. Cheryl Davenport Dozier	912.358.4778
Southern Polytechnic State University	Dr. Lisa A. Rossbacher	678-915-7778
University of West Georgia	Dr. Beheruz N. Sethna	678-839-5000
State Colleges	President	Phone
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College	Dr. David C. Bridges	229-391-5004
Atlanta Metropolitan State College	Dr. Gary A. McGaha	404-756-4000
College of Coastal Georgia	Dr. Valerie Hepburn	912-279-5700
Dalton State College	Dr. John O. Schwenn	706-272-4436
Darton State College	Dr. Peter J. Sireno	229-317-6000
East Georgia State College	Robert G. Boehmer (Interim)	478-289-2017
Gainesville State College	Dr. Martha T. Nesbitt	678-717-3639
Georgia Gwinnett College	Dr. Daniel J. Kaufman	678-407-5000
Georgia Highlands College	Dr. Renva Harmon Watterson (Interim)	706-802-5000
Georgia Perimeter State College	Rob Watts (Interim)	678-891-2300
Gordon College	Dr. Max Burns	800-282-6504
Macon State College	Dr. Jeffery S. Allbritten	478-471-2800
Middle Georgia College	Dr. W. Michael Stoy	478-934-6221
South Georgia College	Dr. Virginia Carson	912-260-4200
Two Year Colleges	President	Phone
Bainbridge College	Dr. Richard A. Carvajal	229-248-2500
Waycross College	Dr. Mary Ellen Wilson (Interim)	912-449-7600