A Year After New Initiative Is Announced, UF Graduate Enrollment Soars

November 1, 1999

GAINESVILLE — An effort to attract more graduate students to the University of Florida is showing the first signs of success.

UF graduate student enrollment topped 8,000 for the first time this fall, an 11.8 percent increase to 8,073 from last year’s 7,219 students, according to the latest figures from UF’s Office of Research and Graduate Programs. The numbers were up in all but two of UF’s 20 colleges and schools, with some reporting gains of as much as 30 percent.

UF administrators attribute the increase in part to new incentives to attract more graduate students and in part to faculty members’ commitment to recruiting.

“Our internal support for fellowship programs and other initiatives aimed at attracting top ranked graduate students played a key role,” said Win Phillips, UF vice president for research and dean of the graduate school. “The faculty responded to the call for more graduate students by stepping up recruiting and retention efforts.”

Phillips said the addition of new graduate offerings also was a factor in the enrollment gains. Last school year, UF’s graduate school approved 53 new program options for students within its 198 majors.

Fellowship programs that are part of the graduate student initiative include the Graduate Minority Fellowship as well as the Alumni Graduate Fellowships, which provides full tuition, fees, a stipend and other benefits to 100 select students. UF officials have pledged $50 million to such programs from the It’s Performance That Counts capital campaign.

Launched in an effort to increase graduate student numbers to levels comparable to many of the nation’s other top-ranked public universities, UF’s initiative seeks to increase the graduate student population to a quarter of the student body. This year, graduate students represent 18.4 percent of UF’s currently enrolled 43,949 students.