Description
The University of Florida is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and traces its origins to 1853 and has operated continuously on its Gainesville campus since September 1906.
After the Florida state legislature's creation of performance standards in 2013, the Florida Board of Governors designated the University of Florida as one of the three "preeminent universities" among the twelve universities of the State University System of Florida. For 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Florida as the sixth (tied) best public university in the United States. The University of Florida is the only member of the Association of American Universities in Florida and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It is the third largest Florida university by student population, and is the eighth largest single-campus university in the United States with 54,906 students enrolled for the fall 2018 semester. The University of Florida is home to 16 academic colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. It offers multiple graduate professional programs—including business administration, engineering, law, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy and veterinary medicine—on one contiguous campus, and administers 123 master's degree programs and 76 doctoral degree programs in eighty-seven schools and departments. The university's seal is also the seal of the state of Florida, which is on the state flag. Among its faculty and alumni are numerous Pulitzer Prize winners and 2 Nobel Prize winners.
The University of Florida's intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known as the "Florida Gators", compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In their 111-year history, the university's varsity sports teams have won 42 national team championships, 37 of which are NCAA titles, and Florida athletes have won 275 individual national championships. In addition, University of Florida students and alumni have won 126 Olympic medals, including 60 gold medals.
