UCF in the News

Orlando colleges and universities want to double down on partnerships with employers to meet a growing gap of workers for jobs. In Florida, there are 155,980 candidates versus 391,286 job openings, or 0.4 candidates per job opening, according to Employ Florida. For metro Orlando, that market is slightly better, with 44,856 candidates for 51,493 job openings, or 0.87 per job. Colleges and universities are among the largest providers of trained workforce in the Orlando region.

Sean Snaith expects an economic slowdown in Orlando and beyond, but he’s not sure when it will start. The director for the UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting highlighted a potential recession during a Feb. 1 event at Orlando’s Citrus Club. His talk was the year’s first in Dean’s Speaker Series, which features UCF College of Business faculty delivering a fast-paced, timely TED-Talk-style presentation on an aspect of their research. Snaith has been projecting a “pasta bowl-shaped” U.S. recession, where over the period of a year, the nation gradually will enter and exit an economic downturn.

You could say University of Central Florida has hit the big time. The university's Nicholson School of Communication and Media has been tapped for a prestigious partnership with NBC. Now, UCF has a new partner to help journalism students reach their goal and make it in the business, NBC. It's called the NBCU Academy. It means there will be money for scholarships, equipment, and access to tips from the network pros. "And all students benefit from this because they are exposed to more nationalizing, more opportunity to learn how to cover all communities," Katie Coronado of Nicholson School of Communication said. The partnership with NBCU Academy is very prestigious. It puts UCF in the league with some of the best journalism schools in the nation. In essence, it means UCF has arrived. The partnership will also be used to help students in UCF's Spanish-language Media Initiative, created to pave the way for students headed for jobs in Spanish-language media. "And the goal is to inform future journalists and student journalists on how to cover this community," said Erica Rodriguez Kight, of Nicholson School.

The U.S. has been facing a nurse shortage for years, but the problem only got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Florida alone is projected to have a shortage of 59,100 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses by 2035, according to a report by the Florida Hospital Association. Mary Lou Sole, the dean of UCF’s College of Nursing, joined anchor Justin Warmoth on “The Weekly” to explain the new strategies being considered to combat this critical shortfall, including partnering with local health care facilities. “We know that Central Florida’s growing,” Sole said. “We’re trying to partner with our health care facilities on how we can educate more nurses and more faculty to teach those nurses and then keep everybody engaged and retained once they’re hired at the facilities. It’s so important to address Central Florida and Florida as a whole.”

Twenty-one bachelor’s and dozens of master’s programs at accredited universities in Florida are ranked among the 2023 Best Online Programs released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. There is also a ranking for Best Online Bachelor's in Psychology Programs. Pennsylvania State University—World Campus emerged in the top in this ranking, as well, tied with Oregon State University and the University of Central Florida at No. 1. The rankings are designed for people who want to complete their bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but need the flexibility to complete the coursework online. U.S. News is the only media organization that ranks online degrees at the program rather than school level.

Central Florida is taking patient care to the next level with a learning tool meant to provide a 100 percent immersive experience. No longer do students have to leave campus for on the job training, now the job comes to them. With this Blended Learning Interactive Immersive Simulation Suite, BLISS for short. "We think it's really critical to train our students to prepare the skills that they're going to be entering into the workforce," said Bari Hoffman, the associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences said. BLISS can create any environment and take students there with all the hyper realism of what life is like. "We can provide the most functional settings, we can do that here and prepare them so that they have improvements in their quality of life and elevating the body of care," Hoffman added.

The National Endowment for the Humanities recently selected a University of Central Florida assistant professor for a highly competitive research award. The university said Stephen Hopkins received a $60,000 fellowship for his book, “The Infernal Laboratory: Vernacular Theology and Hell in the Medieval North Sea.” Hopkins said the book explores the concept of the afterlife in texts during the Middle Ages. Hopkins focuses on English subjects but also teaches linguistics, early medieval literature and mythology, UCF said. According to the NEH website, Hopkins is one of 70 NEH fellowship recipients, with a total of $3.9 million granted overall.