For the first time, the University of North Florida has been included in the “National Universities” category in U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 edition of “Best Colleges,” which includes data from more than 1,900 colleges and universities across the country.
“This new ranking sends a very important message about the future of UNF. We’re a top-tier, national university and no longer perceived as just a regional institution. This accolade reinforces our new, strategic direction of achieving national prominence across all our programs,” said UNF President David Szymanski. “This national recognition is also a strong testament to our outstanding faculty, staff and our phenomenally talented students.”
UNF has consistently been recognized as a “Best Regional” University by U.S. News & World Report for the last eight consecutive years, however, this year, the University made the “National” ranking and was rated among the nation’s “Top Public” institutions at No. 140. National universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and doctoral programs, emphasizing faculty research or award professional practice doctorates.
The U.S. News rankings are based on key measures of quality such as academic reputation; graduation and retention rates; faculty resources (including class size, the percentage of faculty with the top academic degree, student-faculty ratio); student selectivity; financial resources; and alumni giving. View the full rankings.
The new “National University” ranking by U.S. News is due, in part, to UNF’s new Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which for the first time earlier this year, categorized the University in the top tier of national universities—those that grant doctoral degrees.
Until this year, UNF had historically been categorized as a “Master’s University,” but the growth of professional doctorate programs at the University, combined with a change to the Carnegie Classification methodology to explicitly recognize these degrees, led to UNF joining 163 other elite institutions in a new “Doctoral/Professional University” category.
U.S. News & World Report is a multimedia publisher of news, consumer advice, rankings and analysis. U.S. News has earned a reputation as the leading provider of consumer advice and analysis that helps its readers make informed life decisions.
UNF, a nationally ranked university located on an environmentally beautiful campus, offers students who are dedicated to enriching the lives of others the opportunity to build their own futures through a well-rounded education.
