The University of South Florida can officially stand side by side with the University of Florida and Florida State University as the best universities in the state. The Florida Board of Governors voted unanimously on Thursday to formally designate USF as a “Preeminent State Research University,” recognizing the institution’s high performance and strong trajectory toward national excellence.
Preeminence represents the culmination of USF’s many years of careful strategic planning, focused allocation of resources and determination of thousands of students, faculty and staff. The designation comes with millions of dollars in additional funding, carries prestige that will benefit USF in many key areas, including new student and faculty recruitment, and will enhance the economic development of the Tampa Bay region.
“This validates our efforts over more than a decade to transform USF into a premiere institution of higher education, rivaling peers twice our age,” said USF System President Judy Genshaft. “This critical designation will have an exponential impact on our continued efforts to grow our research enterprise, provide the highest-quality education to our students, strengthen our partnerships and help us make an even bigger difference in our community.”
The Florida Preeminence program,
written into state law in 2013
, rewards high-achieving universities based on 12 metrics, including graduation rates, student retention rates, research expenditures and the number of patents awarded. In order to earn Preeminence, a university must meet or exceed at least 11 of the 12 benchmarks.
In 2016, USF was designated as the state’s first “Emerging Preeminent State Research University” for meeting nine of the 12 requirements. Since that time, USF’s six-year graduation rate and student retention rates have improved to qualify for full Preeminence.
"Achieving Preeminence is a testament to USF's longstanding commitment to student success, world-class research and faculty excellence," said USF Board of Trustees Chair Brian Lamb. "We want to thank the Board of Governors, our Governor and our state Legislature for their continued support of higher education. Preeminence positions the university to compete for the very best talent nationally and globally, which accelerates the growing reputation of the university and the Tampa Bay community."
