The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering graduate engineering online program continues to be a Top 10 program among public universities. It is ranked #12 nationally as determined by U.S. News & World Report. It also ranks No. 8 nationally for providing online curriculum to U.S. veterans looking to re-enter the workplace. The UF online graduate engineering program is provided via UF EDGE (Electronic Delivery of Gator Engineering).
UF EDGE caters to working engineers who seek to augment their career track with a master’s degree, engineering professional certificates, and/or short courses. The curriculum allows full-time employees with an undergraduate engineering degree to complete the course in as little as 18 months, or to extend their completion time to accommodate their work schedule. Engineering professional certificates and/or short courses can be completed in as few as 15 hours.
Both in-person and online-only courses are presently available in six departments of the engineering college: Civil Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. The courses are offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters across all these departments.
UF EDGE students take advantage of distance delivery technology to participate in the same courses as on-campus students. They are offered the same content — including high-quality lecture videos which are available online the same day as the live instruction on campus — and have access to the same research-active faculty who teach the campus-based graduate students.
UF EDGE is committed to partnering with motivated engineers to advance their career goals by enhancing their professional skills. Working in partnership with the Department of Engineering Education, UF EDGE is always exploring innovative ways to improve the distance education experience and outcomes for its students through features like a revamped website for improved navigation and the Credential Builder for Engineers short-course program that helps professionals gain new tools in a shorter period of time.
“Due to a sustained state investment as well as institutional focus, UF provides a high level of excellence in online education for students that is recognized by our comprehensive national rankings,” said Joe Glover, UF’s provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. “Online education is not simply a matter of transferring in-person classes to an online format. Rather, our nationally recognized faculty and staff have established an impactful, fulfilling and supportive online educational environment that results in exceptional student outcomes.”
Further, the success of UF’s online master’s degree programs exemplifies the university’s commitment to high-quality graduate offerings. Metrics for those rankings include student engagement, peer opinion, faculty credentials and training, student excellence, and student services and technology.
In September, U.S. News ranked UF the No. 5 public university in the country, joining a list of elite public institutions. The public university ranking also parallels UF’s rise in other rankings. U.S. News ranked UF No. 9, tied with Stanford and Brown, for the best student outcomes among all public and private institutions.
The recognitions symbolize an era of dramatic achievement for the university, which has tripled its research volume over the past two decades and is on the cusp of its goal to generate $1 billion in research expenditures annually. UF also is moving forward with an ambitious plan to advance research and teaching in artificial intelligence and is the first university in the country to integrate artificial intelligence across its curriculum, serving as a model for universities, community colleges and K-12 schools in Florida and nationally. The plan involves hiring 100 new faculty focused on AI, in addition to the more than 500 faculty UF has hired in the past two years – the most aggressive hiring plan in the nation – to bring preeminent faculty to teach and discover.