University event

University events are TEDx events hosted at a college or university, and organized by current university administration staff, faculty or students. It gives universities the opportunity to share the unique innovation and ideas that their community is creating.

About this event type

A university event license follows the same format as the standard event license, except this event is co-branded with a university name (e.g., “TEDxNYU”). This means that the event is hosted by that college or university, so you’ll need permission from that school to hold the event and to use the university's name.

A university license must be held by a current student, faculty or staff member of that university. (Sorry, former staff or alumni aren’t eligible to apply!) One license is allocated per university. However, in special circumstances where a university has schools located in different cities, we can permit licenses for separate events.

If you are a student, we do not recommend applying or suggesting an event date in your final semester. It takes at least three months to organize a TEDx event and there are a number things to do after your event takes place.

The following applies to all university events:

Naming your event

Your event will be named after the full name of the university (e.g., “TEDxStrathmoreUniversity,” “TEDxNixorCollege”).

Audience

Usually, the audience of a university event are students, faculty and/or administration, but it will ultimately be up to you to decide who you want your guests to be.

Size

Like standard TEDx events, university events can have up to 100 guests. Only individuals who have attended a qualifying TED conference can organize an event with more than 100 attendees.

Theme

For a university event type, your focus or theme should be multidisciplinary and broad, and address a variety of topics. You’ll want to feature a diversity of speakers from across several disciplines, and speakers from the university where you’re holding your event. To get an idea of what you want the focus of your event to be, learn more about themes.

Duration

University events can be as brief as a couple of hours, and up to one day in length.

Pricing

The ticket price you may charge to cover event expenses depends on your Licensing Tier. Events organized by a Community tier licensee may charge up to $150 USD per ticket.

Find more resources on our dedicated page for university events


Example events

TEDxUHasselt

TEDxUHasselt is a University event from Hasselt University in Belgium, founded by three students in 2011.

TEDxLAU

TEDxLAU comes from the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon.