The University of West Florida’s commitment to improving graduation and retention rates has been key to its success and has been noticed by U.S. News and World Report.
The university has been ranked in the top 10 public universities for three consecutive years in U.S. News and World Report’s 2025 Best Colleges rankings.
UWF ranked 10th in the Top Public Schools category and 9th in the Best Colleges for Veterans category in U.S. News & World Report’s list, released Sept. 20. The publication compares universities across the nation based on several academic measures to compile its rankings.
“We’ve worked hard over the last few years to provide support to students from the moment they enroll. I call it seamless support,” UWF Chancellor Martha D. Sanders said. “Our admissions staff doesn’t just leave students alone once they enroll. We have a lot of interaction with students.”
Sanders said with a 50 percent four-year graduation rate for first-time students (freshmen through seniors) at the university, the university is focused on helping students overcome financial and academic challenges.
“We’ve been providing more financial support to students, but sometimes it’s tutoring. Sometimes we have students who come from rural areas where we don’t offer Chemistry II in our high school, and it’s not their fault. So we provide a level playing field and tutor them so they have an advantage,” she said.
“High-impact practice is also valuable because it gives students experience outside the classroom. Classroom work is important, but whether it’s an internship, study abroad, or undergraduate research, the fact that students are standing in a lab and inventing something with a faculty member engages students. And it helps them do better in class.”
Doublaska Vanessa Tiniakos Pena, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing student, agrees with the benefits of learning outside the classroom.
“I think it’s great that we have the opportunity to have a new space where we can practice the techniques that we perform on patients,” Peña said of the university’s new simulation lab at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital.
“Adding the simulator allows us to actually practice seeing different types of patients, which I think is good for our main goal of producing better nurses with better skills.”
Sanders said the university uses “very sophisticated predictive models” to track students’ academic progress.
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“For example, we know that if a student gets a B-minus in a particular subject, that student is not very likely to successfully complete the program, so we have what we call ‘early warnings’ and our advisors are keeping a close eye on them,” Sanders explained.
“When an advisor sees it, it’s a trigger, it’s a warning. The advisor brings the student in and talks about it. The advisor asks the student if they’re having issues or suggests that maybe this program isn’t a good fit for the student. That’s made a big difference.”
Serving veterans is also important to UWF, which is a Military Friendly School for 2023-2024.
“About 20 percent of our students are military-related. They’re dependents, they’re veterans, they’re active duty military. So it’s really part of our culture,” Sanders said of the Best Colleges for Veterans award.
“We have an active Military and Veterans Resource Center. One of the things we do is gather information about (housing, employment, education) services for veterans. It may not be a service we offer, but we know where to refer veterans,” she says. “We hope that we serve as a good resource for the community. Even if a veteran is not one of our students, we can help them.”
The center also provides assistance with Veterans Affairs education benefits, tuition assistance for active duty military, out-of-state tuition waivers, academic instruction coordination and private tutoring.
UWF has also been ranked No. 23 in its Southern Regional Universities rankings, No. 37 in its Top Performing Colleges for Social Mobility rankings and No. 48 in its Best Value Colleges rankings by U.S. News and World Report, now in its 40th year.
For more information about the University of West Florida, visit uwf.edu. For more information on U.S. News and World Report rankings, visit usnews.com.
