University of North Florida

The University of North Florida (UNF) is a public university set on a 1,381-acre campus in the state’s most populous city, Jacksonville.

UNF is made up of six colleges: health; business; arts and sciences; computing, engineering and construction; education and human services; and Hicks Honors College. There are 17,000 students enrolled, with 80 per cent of those undergraduates. The university has a student-to-faculty ration of around 19 to one.

One of the university’s main draws is its huge campus, which is surrounded by miles of woodland nature trails, as well as various ponds, wetlands and lakes. Because of the size of the campus, a shuttle service runs that ferries students, faculty members and visitors from point-to-point. The campus is about a 15-minute drive away from central Jacksonville.

The university’s athletics teams, known as the Ospreys, compete in the top national division for students. The team’s mascot, an osprey known as Ozzie, regularly makes appearances at games. Including the sports teams, there are over 200 clubs and organisations that students can join at UNF.

Facilities on campus include a student wellness complex, a $50.4 million student union building and six residence halls. UNF’s 128,000 square foot Fine Arts Center features a 1,300-seat performance hall, with two additional theatres located nearby. The university also owns and operates the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Jacksonville.

UNF has study abroad programmes organised with a number of institutions worldwide, including Cardiff University in the UK and the University of Malaga in Spain.