UF ranks among top in nation in doctoral graduates

UF ranks among the nation’s top universities for doctoral graduates and Hispanic and Latino students with doctoral degrees.

The Survey of Earned Doctorates, released in December, ranked UF sixth for students graduating with doctoral degrees in 2015 and fifth for Hispanic and Latino students with doctorates from 2011 to 2015.

UF students received 747 doctorates in 2015, according to the survey. From 2011 to 2015, 192 Hispanic and Latino students earned doctorates.

“There’s really a fairly small number of universities that produce a majority of doctoral degrees, and we’re one of them,” said UF spokesman Steve Orlando about the ranking.

However, because the survey gathers information separately from the university, it underrepresented the actual number of doctorates given, he said.

The UF Office of Institutional Planning and Research website records the number of doctorates as 753, Orlando wrote in an email.

UF’s Graduate School dean, Henry Frierson, said the number of Ph.D.s produced depends on available resources and the size of the department.

Frierson said the largest UF departments for graduate students include engineering, chemistry and biomedical.

Increasing the number of doctorate students of color is important, he added.

“You look at a state like Florida, which is very diverse, and you’d like to at least have graduate students that reflect that,” Frierson said.