With help from UF, FSU, Scott reaches university rankings goal

When Gov. Rick Scott campaigned for re-election in 2014, he promised to keep Florida public universities competitive in rankings. Scott aimed to achieve "the first top 10 research public university and a second ranked public university in the top 25."

Four years later, as his tenure comes to a close, we checked if he made good on his promise.

U.S. News and World Report releases its Best National Colleges list every year with Ivy League schools like Princeton taking the top spot. U.S. News ranks schools on 16 metrics, including graduation rates, class sizes, faculty salary, financial resources and student standardized testing scores.

Compared to all national universities, both public and private, Florida's top two universities — University of Florida and Florida State University — are ranked Nos. 35 and 70.

However, Scott's promise refers to the list's public university category. In September 2018, U.S. News announced UF reached the top eight and FSU rose to No. 26 in its 2019 list.  

"When I took office, the University of Florida ranked 17th among public universities in the nation, and I challenged them in 2014 to become a top-10 university," Scott said in a release. "For the second year in a row, UF has surpassed that goal."

In 2013, UF and FSU, the state's No.1 and No. 2 public universities, were ranked Nos. 14 and 40 in the 2014 edition of the U.S. News and World Report Top Public Schools list.  

When we last updated Scott's promise, UF bested the University of Miami, a private institution, in US News' 2016 national rankings when UF jumped from 48th to 47th place. FSU tied with University of Alabama for 43rd.

Both UF and FSU officially began shooting toward their top 10 and top 25 goals, respectively, in 2013, after Scott signed a bill granting UF and FSU preeminence status, which provides millions of dollars worth of additional funding.

Florida universities must meet 11 out of 12 standards that track academic achievements, like a freshman retention rate of 90 percent and a graduation rate of 60 percent, to be considered preeminent. The University of South Florida was granted preeminence in June 2018 and is No. 58 in U.S. News' public schools list.

After UF cracked the top 10 in 2017 — when it tied for ninth place with University of California-Irvine and UC-San Diego — UF President Kent Fuchs and the Board of Trustees announced the university's next goal: top 5.

The increase in rankings is thanks to an emphasis on affordability and academic quality, said Brittany Wise, spokeswoman for the State University System of Florida Board of Governors.

Although FSU was one spot away from cracking the top 25, both of Florida's top schools have jumped a combined 20 spots since Scott's re-election. We rate this Promise Kept.