UF trustees endorse collaboration with Full Sail University

December 2, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Board of Trustees today endorsed a collaboration between UF and Winter Park-based Full Sail University to create more educational and career opportunities for students at both schools in media, technology and entertainment business.

The collaboration will, among other things, make it easier for students who graduate with certain degrees at one institution to have access to the next level of degree program at the other institution. It also will help clear the way for co-promotion of such degree and certificate programs, with the aim of establishing Central and North Central Florida as a national leader for entertainment business and technology.

“It just makes sense for institutions to share their assets in order to benefit their students,” UF President Bernie Machen said. “UF and Full Sail each have fields in which they excel. Why not make it easier for students to have the best of both worlds?”

Full Sail President Garry Jones called the collaboration “a fantastic new chapter in the histories of both universities.”

“This is truly exciting,” Jones said. “Our schools have so much to offer each other, and the best part is that the students at both our institutions will be the big winners.”

The project initially would focus on sports, business, computer game development and engineering, animation, and education degree and certificate programs.

UF colleges that have expressed interest in the plan include Journalism and Communications, Fine Arts, Business Administration, Health and Human Performance, Education and Engineering.

Founded in 1979, Full Sail offers more than 30 master’s, bachelor’s and associate degree programs with an emphasis in many areas related to entertainment and media. Its enrollment is more than 15,000.

The collaboration is part of what Machen calls the university’s Accelerated Market Priorities. AMPs, as they are called, will be a series of initiatives aimed at making the university more responsive to the needs of the job market.

“As I’ve said before, we consider economic development to be a university mission equal in importance to research, education and service,” Machen said. “AMPs make it possible for us to respond quickly to rapidly changing markets.”

A time frame for the collaboration has not been established. The plan calls for several measures to be met. Those include ensuring that that each institution’s admissions process and standards are met by students admitted to its degree programs, and each institution’s degree and accreditation requirements are met for degrees earned with courses taken at both institutions, according to the resolution trustees approved.