U.S. News: 10 Florida universities rank among the best in the world

(The Center Square) – Ten Florida universities are on a list of 2,000 identified by U.S. News & World Report as the best in the world.

Ranked 98th on the list and the top Florida school was the University of Florida in Gainesville. It’s the third-largest Florida university by student population and the fifth-largest single-campus university in the U.S.

Florida State University in Tallahassee ranked 241; the University of Miami at Coral Gables ranked 253; the University of South Florida in Tampa ranked 317; University of Central Florida in Orlando ranked 413; Florida International University in Miami ranked 468; Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne ranked 912; Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton ranked 1,088; Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale ranked 1,106; Florida A&M University in Tallahassee ranked 1,478.

U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Global Universities list ranked more than 2,000 schools in 95 countries based on academic research and reputation. This year’s included an additional 250 schools, up from 1,750 last year.

The ninth annual Best Global Universities rankings “focus specifically on schools’ academic research and reputation overall and not on their separate undergraduate or graduate programs.” The rankings were created to help applicants compare institutions around the world “since an increasing number of students plan to enroll in universities outside of their own country,” the report states. The rankings also provide insight into how U.S. universities, which U.S. News has ranked for nearly 40 years, stand globally.

Four of the top five institutions are American. Harvard University ranked first; followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of California – Berkeley. Ranking fifth, rounding out the top five, was the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

The top five countries with the most institutions on the list were China (338), the U.S. (280), Japan (105), the United Kingdom (92), and India (81).

U.S. News evaluated 13 ranking factors and analyzed data and metrics provided by global analytics company Clarivate to compile the rankings. Factors included global research reputation, regional research reputation, number of publications that are among the 10% most cited, publications, among others.

U.S. News & World Report earlier this year ranked Florida first in the U.S. for tuition and fees and first for higher education overall since its rankings inception in 2017.

The College Board has also ranked Florida as the least expensive state to obtain a bachelor’s degree for the 2022-23 academic year for students who attend a public university.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s pushed back against President Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt, said, “Florida’s public college and university system is number one in the country because we put students first and this achievement proves we are on the right track. We will continue to prioritize offering a world-class education at an affordable price, providing the greatest value for our students.”

As previously reported, DeSantis signed a higher education reform bill into law that implemented a range of transparency requirements and streamlined bureaucratic processes to make attending higher education institutions easier and less expensive for students. The reforms, which went into effect July 1 “will dismantle the accreditation monopoly, bring accountability to tenured faculty, provide transparency in curriculum and protect students against fee increases,” DeSantis said when he signed the bill into law.

While other states have increased tuition for their higher education institutions, Florida has held tuition and fees flat from 2014-2015. Nationally, tuition has increased by 17% over the same time period.

The Florida University System also recently announced a 12% five-year increase in graduation rates and a 49% year-over-year drop in the student cost for a bachelor’s degree. The second-largest system in the U.S, its 12 public universities serve more than 430,000 students.