The system is headquartered in the UNT Gateway Center at 801 North Texas Boulevard in the University of North Texas in Denton. The system maintains an office, at the UNT System Building (formerly the Universities Center at Dallas), at 1901 Main Street in Dallas.

Planned university in Dallas

A 2001 bill passed by the Texas Legislature and signed into law by Governor Rick Perry authorized the UNT System to establish the University of North Texas at Dallas, the first general public university within the Dallas city limits, once enrollment at the Dallas Campus reaches 2,500. (The University of Texas at Dallas, despite its name, is actually located within the city limits of Richardson.) A 2003 bill passed into law changed the requirement, allowing work to begin on UNT at Dallas once the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board certifies enrollment of the equivalent of 1,000 full-time students for one semester.

In December 2004, the UNT System announced its intent to seek approval for a public law school in downtown Dallas. A bill authorizing the law school was passed by the Texas Senate and the House Higher Education Committee in the 2005 Texas Legislature, but the measure died when it did not reach the House calendar before the end of the session. In 2007, a bill was again passed by the Texas Senate. However, the bill faced more challenges in the House and ultimately failed after being attached to an unrelated eminent domain bill. If approved, the law school would have initially operated as a professional school under the UNT System but would eventually have become a part of UNT at Dallas.