This week John Delaney, President of University of North Florida (UNF), made a private presentation to the Advisory Council of Cornerstone prior to the Chamber’s quarterly luncheon. Enjoy some of these little known facts and figures about the university system in Jacksonville:  

• Jacksonville was one of the last large cities in Florida to add a university
• Jacksonville University became a full fledged university in the mid-1980’s
• There are 3,500 degrees a year (and growing) awarded from the University of North Florida
• There are more graduates of UNF living in Jacksonville than Florida State University (FSU) grads or University of Florida grads (UF)
• The average student only pays about 10 percent of the cost of tuition (the rest, 70 percent, comes from the State, 10 percent from Bright futures scholarships or 10 percent from need based scholarships)
• UNF currently has a student body of 17,000 compared to Florida State College at Jacksonville with a student body of about 70,000 (including part time students)
• UNF has the #1 Jazz program in the COUNTRY and FSU is #2
• The Florida Prepaid program is still in effect and a good way to pay for education
• Bright Futures scholarships will probably go away due to budget constraints at the state level

Some sobering statistics about elementary schools in North Florida:

• There are the same number of children in grades K-12 in the public school system now as there was in 1965 Parents have more options to put their children in private schools
• The result is that half of the children in public schools K-12 live in households below the poverty line
• One out of eight children don’t live with their mother or their father

Do you have any interesting statistics or information about our school and university systems in Jacksonville? If so, share with us below!