For the fifth time, UCF has been named among the nation 麻豆精品 S檚 most innovative schools by U.S. News & World Report, which unveiled its 2021 Best Colleges Rankings Monday.
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The Most Innovative Schools category recognizes institutions that are making the most innovative enhancements to their institutions in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities. Since the category was first introduced in 2015, UCF has been named on the annual list for the fourth consecutive year.
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Higher Education, Lower Debt
UCF ranked No. 47 on the new Least Debt list, which recognizes institutions for their students 麻豆精品 S� loan amounts and proportion of graduates that took out loans. At UCF, 50 percent of first time in college students graduate with no educational debt. 鲍颁贵 麻豆精品 S檚 student loan default rate is 2.4 percent, compared to the national average of 10.1 percent and 7.3 percent for Florida. UCF is also ranked among the nation 麻豆精品 S檚 best value colleges by Forbes, Kiplinger and The Princeton Review.
The university moved up eight spots to No. 62 nationally for top performers for social mobility. The category recognizes success with enrolling and graduating Pell Grant recipients.
鲍颁贵 麻豆精品 S檚 engineering and computer science programs continue to earn national recognition. The university ranked No. 71 for best undergraduate computer science programs and No. 79 for best undergraduate engineering programs.
UCF is the No. 1 supplier of graduates to U.S. aerospace and defense industries for the sixth consecutive year, according to Aviation Week Network, and ranks second in the nation (only to Georgia Tech) for teaching the critical skills needed by employers. Also, 30 percent of Kennedy Space Center 麻豆精品 S檚 and 27 percent of Lockheed Martin Orlando 麻豆精品 S檚 workforces are UCF graduates.
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National Excellence, Local Impact
Overall, UCF moved up two spots to rank No. 77 among public universities nationwide. 鲍颁贵 麻豆精品 S檚 undergraduate business program ranked No. 116.
The nation 麻豆精品 S檚 most innovative schools are selected by college presidents, provosts and admissions deans. While the specific reasons for those nominations are not identified, UCF has earned recognition in many areas.
UCF Downtown recently celebrated its one-year anniversary by winning the Golden Brick Award of Excellence, for the new campus 麻豆精品 S� extraordinary achievements and broad-reaching contributions. The downtown campus 麻豆精品 S� a transformational partnership with Valencia College 麻豆精品 S� has fostered numerous impactful community collaborations. These include the Parramore Education and Innovation District and the Parramore Healthy Community Coalition, which strive to reduce barriers to education and improve community health and well-being.
guarantees admission for transfers from six regional state colleges. The program is a national model for increasing access to a high-quality college education, improving social mobility for underserved populations and supplying talent to the workforce. Since it was established at UCF in 2006, more than 55,000 degrees have been awarded to students who entered the university through DirectConnect.
Innovating Curriculum Driven by Demand
In direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UCF launched 11 new graduate certificate programs.
The programs, which began this fall, offer candidates a short series of courses that were specifically woven together to provide useful tools when facing COVID-19 related-challenges. The certificates, tracks and special topics courses cover a variety of fields from business and engineering to optics and health.
For example, the cyber risk management graduate certificate 麻豆精品 S� which is also available through UCF Online 麻豆精品 S� looks at the current cybersecurity and privacy matters affecting organizations and emphasizes managerial and risk-based approaches. Quarantines due to COVID-19 means more people are shopping and conducting work from home, thus driving demand for remote connections that increase security and privacy concerns for employers and employees.
The College of Health Professions and Sciences added a course to its graduate clinical speech pathology program geared toward preparing clinical professionals to meet the complex needs of patients hospitalized from COVID-19 and other related conditions.
鲍颁贵 麻豆精品 S檚 Simulation, Technology, Innovation & Modeling (STIM) Center received accreditation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the Council for Accreditation of Healthcare Simulation Programs. The STIM Center is based in the College of Nursing.
Innovating Digital Learning and Research
When the coronavirus pandemic forced all of Florida 麻豆精品 S檚 public colleges and universities to go fully remote last spring, UCF leveraged two decades of online learning expertise to make a smooth transition. University officials rolled out new websites with specialized resources 麻豆精品 S� such as Keep Teaching for faculty and Keep Learning for students 麻豆精品 S� and held a series of training workshops on effective online learning.
This fall, more than three-quarters of 鲍颁贵 麻豆精品 S檚 lecture, lab and discussion classes are online or remote, and only about one-quarter have an in-person experience.
Those additions also helped UCF prepare for a new hybrid class format called Blendflex. Offered for the first time this fall, the model splits a class of students into smaller groups to meet physical distancing requirements, with students attending one in-person class session per week. When not in a physical class, students can participate in the other sessions remotely in real-time, or access class content later through a recorded session.
Despite the unique challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, UCF welcomed one of its most accomplished incoming freshman classes for the Fall 2020 semester. The Class of 2024 entered the university having an average GPA of 4.18, the strongest in UCF history. The incoming freshmen also rank among the university 麻豆精品 S檚 top three classes for standardized test scores with average SAT and ACT scores of 1322 and 28.7, respectively.
Earlier this year, U.S. News & World Report ranked UCF among the top 20 Best Online Bachelor 麻豆精品 S檚 Programs in the nation for the third consecutive year. Over 100 fully online programs are now available through UCF Online, enabling students from anywhere in the world to enroll in fully online degree programs.
Innovating COVID-19 Research
In addition to catering curriculum to respond to the pandemic, UCF researchers are finding innovative ways to combat it.
UCF scientists are developing a nanoparticle film that would 麻豆精品 S渃atch 麻豆精品 S� and kill COVID-19 on protective gear 麻豆精品 S� like gloves, masks and gowns 麻豆精品 S� to better shield healthcare providers.
The university is leading an effort to rapidly 3D-print critical personal protective equipment. UCF researchers are paving the way for medical face shields 麻豆精品 S� and eventually multi-sized respirator masks 麻豆精品 S� to be rapidly produced, up to as many as 1,500 a day.
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Researchers are also working to co-develop聽a new, rapid-acting, long-lasting disinfectant spray that instantly kills viruses without using harsh chemicals.
