Florida Board Of Governors approves UF academic enhancement proposal

November 16, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Board of Governors gave its unanimous approval to a proposed University of Florida program that would improve the UF undergraduate educational experience by hiring 200 additional faculty members and 100 academic advisers.

UF’s Board of Trustees will vote on a resolution supporting the Academic Enhancement Program at its December meeting. The next stop for the program will be the Florida Legislature, which is expected to consider it as part of the Board of Governors’ legislative package during the Legislature’s regular session next spring.

UF President Bernie Machen, who is traveling in Asia with U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings but participated in the meeting by telephone, told the board that his trip has made clear that the American higher education system is viewed as a crown jewel. However, he said, foreign universities are working hard and making progress in their efforts to copy U.S. universities. That’s one reason the proposed Academic Enhancement Program is so important — it will help UF compete with the best universities nationally and globally, Machen said.

“I believe more than ever that this state needs a top 10 university,” he said.

The Academic Enhancement Program would allow UF to reduce the student-to-faculty ratio, increase course section offerings and give undergraduate students the counseling they need to stay on track for graduation. Indirect benefits include increased support for UF research and development, which would enhance UF’s role in promoting Florida’s economic development.

The program would be funded with a $500-per-semester increase that would be applied to all undergraduate students who enroll at UF for the first time in fall 2007. Currently enrolled students would never be charged the additional amount. Resources would be made available to students on need-based financial aid so they would not incur additional costs.

Phased in over four years, the program would generate approximately $36 million annually, narrowing a significant gap between the amount UF and other institutions in the state and the nation charge in tuition and fees.

“The difference between the University of Florida and our national peers is almost uniquely vested in the amount of tuition revenue we generate,” Machen said.

UF currently charges the lowest tuition and fees of all but one state university in Florida – New College of Florida in Sarasota. It also ranked last in USA Today’s 2006 survey of tuition at 75 public flagship universities nationwide. The university has the lowest tuition of any of the 60 U.S. member institutions in the Association of American Universities, of which UF is the only Florida member. Finally, UF has the lowest tuition of any of the top 15 public universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report (UF is ranked 13th).

The result is that UF falls far short in its teaching and research resources, as indicated in the U.S. News August 2006 “America’s Best Colleges” annual edition:

  • UF’s student faculty ratio is 21-1, compared with 15-1 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and 14-1 at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
  • At UF, just 39 percent of classes have 19 or fewer students. At UC-Berkeley, UM-Ann Arbor and UNC-Chapel Hill, the percentage of classes with 19 or fewer students is 59, 43 and 50, respectively. UF also has considerably more classes with 50 or more students than those universities.
  • UF is No. 123 among public and private universities in the faculty resource ranking, which combines several factors related to educational quality, including faculty salaries, class sizes and student-faculty ratios.

The Academic Enhancement Program would help reduce these disparities with the nation’s best public universities.

“Florida’s brightest students should not have to leave the state to go to one of these kinds of institutions,” Manny Fernandez, chairman of the UF Board of Trustees, told the Board of Governors.

UF has advocated giving universities more control over setting their own tuition, and the need to raise tuition, for several years. The Legislature in 2004 gave the university the authority to set tuition for graduate, professional and out-of-state students beginning in the 2005 academic year. UF officials see the program as the logical next step in this process and look forward to working with the Legislature on the new program.

The Academic Enhancement Program would not be covered by the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship program. It also would not be covered under the Florida Prepaid College Plan, which does not cover all fees. Nearly 95 percent of all in-state UF undergraduates receive Bright Futures scholarships. Bright Futures scholarships pay for either 100 percent or 75 percent of eligible students’ tuition and fees.

UF is the state’s largest university, with approximately 50,000 students. UF and its affiliates have about 35,000 employees and a statewide economic impact exceeding $4 billion annually.