Best universities in Florida 2022

Florida is the southernmost state in the USA, covering a peninsula with the Atlantic to the east side and the Gulf of Mexico on the west. Its proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America mean that Florida has a rich and diverse cultural mix and thriving arts and music scene.

The state is also famous for its theme parks – it is the home of Disney World - and nightlife as well as its natural beauty.

Florida’s largest city, Miami is a hub for finance, culture, entertainment, media and the arts. The state capital Tallahassee is renowned for its universities and is a centre for state governance, law, lobbying organisations and trade associations.

If you want to study in Florida it is important to find the university which is right for you. Here are the best universities in Florida based on the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education US College Rankings 2022.

1. University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private research university founded in 1925 and located southwest of downtown Miami in the Coral Gables area.

The first class consisted of 372 students. Times were hard for the fledgling university following a recession and damage to the campus by a hurricane. At one point students were forced to go door-to-door collecting funds to keep the institution open.

But the university continued and since then the University of Miami has gone on to become a thriving, respected higher education institution with over 16,000 students studying a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

The university offers 166 undergraduate level degrees, 105 master's and 63 doctoral programmes and ranks highly among US universities.

Studies are split across 12 schools including three graduate schools: The Graduate School, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and the University of Miami School of Law.

The campus is close to the ocean and covers 453 acres with almost 6 million square feet of buildings. The campus has its own arboretum, theatre and monorail station. There is also housing for over 4,000 students, mostly freshmen, in five residential colleges and an apartment-style housing area.

2. University of Florida

The University of Florida was founded in 1853 as a research university. The main campus is in the city of Gainesville, Florida.

The university was one of the first public higher education institutions in the state and was born out of a merger of several other colleges and schools in the late 19th and early 20th century.

From the start of the 1900s the university expanded rapidly with increasing enrolment and the addition of new academic schools.

The university has an excellent reputation for the quantity and quality of its research and is home to more than 150 research centres and institutes.

The student population is made up of almost 47,000 students studying at all levels across 87 schools or departments. International students make up a significant part of that figure; students from over 130 countries study abroad at the University of Florida.

The university offers over 100 undergraduate majors and 200 graduate degrees across its 16 colleges and schools and competition for a place is fierce with admission only granted to under half of those who apply.

The main campus covers 2,000 acres and is home to all the major academic centres and much of the student housing. The University of Florida is the eighth-largest single-campus university in the USA.

3. Florida State University

Florida State University is a research university located in Tallahassee Florida and is part of the State University System of Florida. 

Having been founded in 1851, it is the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida. 

There are 16 colleges at the university and more than 110 centres, facilities, labs and institutes. 

It is one of two primary research universities in Florida and is predominately associated with scientific research.

There are more than 700 organisations and clubs that students can get involved with from cheerleading to flying to acapella to football. There is also the student newspaper, the FSView & Florida Flambeau which has published weekly for the past 100 years. 

The best universities in Florida 2022

Click each institution to view its Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 profile