Committed to teaching and the advancement of knowledge, Texas Tech University, a comprehensive public research university, provides the highest standards of excellence in higher education, fosters intellectual and personal development, and stimulates meaningful research and service to humankind.

Texas Tech University is among 131 universities and colleges in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education's “Very High Research Activity” category. The University also is only one of 94 public institutions listed. The list is updated every three years and universities must maintain specific criteria to achieve designation. Texas Tech first made the list in 2015 and was reaffirmed in 2018.

In 2019, Texas Tech achieved full status as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). In the Fall of 2019, the institution recorded an undergraduate Hispanic student population of 29.2%. While HSI status is determined based on an undergraduate student body that is above 25% Hispanic, Texas Tech offers a comprehensive series of programs, services, initiatives, and organizations to underrepresented students, students of color, and first-generation students, many of whom are Hispanic.

Texas Tech University was created by legislative action in 1923 and has the distinction of being the largest comprehensive higher education institution in the western two-thirds of the state of Texas. The university is the major institution of higher education in a region larger than 46 of the nation's 50 states and is the only campus in Texas that is home to a major university, law school and medical school. Originally named Texas Technological College, the college opened in 1925 with six buildings and an enrollment of 914. Graduate instruction did not begin until 1927 within the school of Liberal Arts. A “Division of Graduate Studies” was established in 1935 and eventually became known as the Graduate School in 1954. By action of the Texas State Legislature, Texas Technological College formally became Texas Tech University on September 1, 1969.