University of Central Florida

The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university with its main campus in unincorporated Orange County, Florida, near Orlando, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida. With 70,674 students as of the fall 2025 semester, it has the second-largest on-campus student body of any public university in the United States. UCF is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research spending and doctorate production." UCF was founded in 1963 and opened in 1968 as Florida Technological University. The new state university was intended in part to train scientists and engineers for the growing aerospace and defense workforce around Kennedy Space Center and what is now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As the curriculum widened beyond engineering and the physical sciences, the school was renamed the University of Central Florida in 1978. It remains active in space-related research through units such as the Florida Space Institute and the NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium. Most students attend the main campus, 13 miles (21 km) east of downtown Orlando. The university offers more than 230 degree programs through 13 colleges, including the Health Sciences Campus at Lake Nona Medical City, the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, and a campus in downtown Orlando. Since opening it has awarded more than 450,000 degrees. The university's colors are black and gold. Its athletic teams, the UCF Knights, compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Big 12 Conference.