University of Central Florida

The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university with its main campus in unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States, near Orlando. It is part of the State University System of Florida. With 70,674 students as of the fall 2025 semester, UCF 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" and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

UCF was founded in 1963 and opened its first classes in 1968 as Florida Technological University, with the mission to provide personnel educated in science, technology, engineering and math to support the growing U.S. space program at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (known at the time as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station) on Florida's Space Coast. As its academic scope expanded beyond engineering and technology, Florida Tech was renamed the University of Central Florida in 1978. UCF continues to have space root connections, as it developed and oversees the Florida Space Institute, Robinson Observatory, manages the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, and is the leader of the NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium. Initial enrollment in 1968 was 1,948 students; enrollment in 2024 exceeds 68,000 students from 142 countries and all 50 states.