UTC-5. The time zone of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is UTC-5. 202 1 academic ranking of world universities 202 1 ranked 29th. 202 1 academic ranking of world universities 202 1 ranked 29th. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), founded in 1789, is the top research university in the world. This university is one of the three earliest public universities in American history and one of the five largest public universities. Known as "public ivy" and "new ivy", it represents the highest level of American public universities together with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Michigan at ann arbor.