The University of Florida has become the first Florida school to break into the list of top 10 best public universities, coming in at No. 9, according to the 2018 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings released in September.
The 2018 list of top 10 best public universities now looks like this:
1 – University of California, Berkeley *
1 – University of California, Los Angeles *
3 – University of Virginia
4 – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
5 – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
6 – College of William & Mary
7 – Georgia Institute of Technology
8 – University of California, Santa Barbara
9 – University of Florida *
9 – University of California, Irvine *
9 – University of California, San Diego *
* = tie
Now the state’s highest-ranked university, UF last year was ranked No. 14 among publics and No. 50 overall.
“This is a significant milestone that we can all be proud of, and it happened as the result of many years of focused work and a keen sense of purpose,” UF President Kent Fuchs said.
Factors that helped UF’s ranking improve this year include:
- Undergraduate academic reputation
- Selectivity
- Graduation rate performance
UF’s quest to become a top-10 public research institution officially began in 2013, when the Legislature passed, and Rick Scott signed, a bill designating it a preeminent university and providing special funding to be used for helping it reach top status. Florida State University also received the preeminent designation.
UF has since used preeminence funding to hire more than 100 senior leading faculty from all over the world. Earlier this year, the university announced a plan to increase the faculty by an additional 500 members to continue to increase research excellence and reduce class sizes.
Fuchs said UF alumni – half a million strong – and friends represent one of the strongest and most loyal communities in the world and should be especially proud. He also offered his thanks to university leaders around the country for their votes of confidence in UF.
While he welcomed the new ranking, Fuchs said the university’s work is far from done.
“Now is the time to double down,” he said. “We have the talent, the collective will and the means to keep moving up. We owe it to our students and the people of Florida to be the very best public research institution we can be.”
View UF’s U.S. News rankings at https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-florida-1535.
Article sourced from http://news.ufl.edu/, written by Steve Orlando. Edited for length
