A large Orlando-based metropolitan research university with 70,000+ students and $237.4m in funded research across aerospace, photonics, modelling and simulation, healthcare and national security.
Founded in 1963 and opened in 1968 as Florida Technological University with 1,948 students, the University of Central Florida (UCF) is now one of the nation's largest metropolitan research universities. Headquartered in Orlando, it serves over 70,000 students across 12 colleges and more than 250 degree programmes, graduating more than 18,000 students a year. Funded research totals $237.4m.
UCF's research spans aerospace and space science, optics and photonics, modelling and simulation, healthcare, national security, and planetary science. Its Exolith Lab produces lunar regolith simulants used to support NASA missions, and the university also conducts research on terraforming Mars. The institution is known as "America's Space University", reflecting its origins in the space race and its continuing role in supplying talent and technology to America's space programme and beyond.
Campuses include UCF Downtown and the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, alongside online programmes that UCF has run for over 25 years. The university is consistently ranked among the top 10 most innovative public universities in the United States, and 70% of its first-time-in-college students graduate without educational debt.
