The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. The school was founded in 1914 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, and a practice mineshaft survives on the mountainous desert campus. Following a reorganization of the University of Texas in 1920, the school was renamed the College of Mines and Metallurgy of the University of Texas.