ACADEMIC PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH CAPACITY Academic Program Quality

The Board of Governors’ system of accountability for the SUS includes regulations that guide the continuous improvement efforts of the state universities. The Board has directed each state university to maintain regional accreditation and encourages institutions to seek national or specialized

accreditation for its colleges, schools, and academic programs for which there are established standards.

All 11 institutions maintain regional accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The University of South Florida - St. Petersburg has also achieved SACS accreditation. Of the state university degree programs for which specialized accreditation exists, approximately 88% of the baccalaureate programs and approximately 90% of master’s programs have achieved such accreditation. Others are planning or are in the process of seeking accreditation. Of the research doctorates, approximately 97% have achieved such accreditation, and 78% of the professional doctorates have achieved such accreditation, whereas the other 22% of the professional doctorates are seeking or plan to seek specialized accreditation.

These achievements translate into approximately 43% of graduates from baccalaureate programs, 62% from master’s

programs, 22% from research doctoral programs, and 97% from professional doctoral programs completing degree programs in the State University System with specialized accreditation.

To supplement specialized accreditation reviews and to ensure that programs without such accreditation options receive sufficient attention, the Board requires the cyclic review of all academic degree programs in state universities at least every seven years. Academic program review has a lengthy history in the System and includes the periodic analysis of how degree programs provide students with high-quality

education and preparation for successful work. The program review processes have been well aligned with regional and discipline-specific accreditation expectations.

All of the baccalaureate programs in the System have instituted a system of Academic Learning Compacts and related assessment processes. The Academic Learning Compact includes the identification of what students will learn in a given program and how that learning will be measured above and beyond course grades. The Academic Learning Compacts focus on content knowledge by discipline, communication skills, and critical thinking skills.

Nine of the state universities have also joined the national Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA). Each institution that participates in VSA has a Web-based College Portrait, which supplies basic comparable information regarding student and campus characteristics, cost of attendance, success and progress rates, campus safety, class size, student

experiences on campus, and student learning outcomes. See

http://www.voluntarysystem.org/index.cfm?page=about_cp

for more information.

Professional licensure exam pass rates for graduates of State University System programs, albeit narrowly focused on a few disciplines, are useful indicators of program quality and effectiveness. This year’s report captures five-year trends for first-time test taker pass rates in the following professional licensure areas: nursing NCLEX); law (Florida Bar); pharmacy (NAPLEX); medicine (USMLE, 3 parts); dentistry (NBDE, 2 parts); and veterinary medicine (NAVLE). Reporting of universities’ performance on licensure exams is accompanied by an appropriate national or state benchmark, because the most meaningful comparison of the university’s performance is with the performance of all other relevant institutions in the state or country. At the System level, 2009 pass rates met the benchmark on all of these exams except for the NAPLEX for pharmacy; the State University System pass rate for the NAPLEX was 93.5%, whereas the national benchmark was 96.5%.

National and international recognition also serve as good indicators that a program or institution has reached or is on the track to preeminence. The individual annual reports included in this volume include examples of some of the institutions and programs in the System that have attained various forms of national or international recognition. Research, Development, and Commercialization

Through its research endeavors, the State University System plays a critical role in transforming Florida’s economy to one that has a national and global reputation. The System

provides a highly educated workforce for high-skill, high- wage jobs and companies; employs researchers who tackle some of the most significant challenges facing the state, nation, and world; produces intellectual property that can be

commercialized through licenses and patents; establishes partnerships with local and regional industries; promotes the creation of start-up companies and spin-off companies; and helps attract new employers to the state.

System Response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill The State University System’s response to the crisis created by the Deepwater Horizon’s sinking and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates the critical role university researchers play in responding to the challenges faced by the state and the nation. The Oil Spill Academic Task Force (oilspill.fsu.edu) formed during the crisis to provide a venue for the researchers to focus their expertise. The Task Force is coordinated by Florida State University and consists of scientists and scholars from throughout the State University System working in collaboration with colleagues from private colleges.

The Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) (fio.usf.edu), a multi-university cooperative entity and one of three Academic Infrastructure Support Organizations, includes in its

membership independent universities, private research labs, and state government agencies. The FIO represents an investment in State University System research that has particularly demonstrated the state and national benefits of an organized cooperative effort in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In August 2010, the Institute made awards to 27 research projects, many of them collaborations among multiple Florida universities, from $10 million dollars paid by the BP oil company to support research on the impacts of the Gulf oil spill.

New Florida Initiative

Launched in 2010, the New Florida Initiative is the State University System’s collaborative effort — alongside business and government — to deliver the economy, talent, and

innovations that Florida must have to be globally competitive. The initiative is designed to ensure that Florida’s knowledge and innovation economy is sustained by high-technology, high-wage jobs in the fields of science, technology,

engineering and mathematics (or STEM), as well as in critical areas such as medicine and health care, finance, insurance, professional services, education, the humanities, and the arts. The New Florida Initiative represents less a project than a major cultural shift for the state and a more effective return- on-investment approach for higher education. The three touchstones for this shift are (1) focusing resources to bear on Florida’s economic transformation; (2) expecting results that are clearly articulated to the Board of Governors prior to allocation — including issues such as degree productivity in general, degree productivity in critical areas, retention rates, research and commercialization activity; and (3) ensuring accountability for the return on investment of state funds. In 2010, the Legislature appropriated $12 million for with New Florida activities, $2 million of which was for the State

University Research Commercialization Assistance Grants program. Priority was placed on the creation of high-wage jobs, potential for addressing state needs and enhancing the state competitiveness, and the potential to create businesses from university research. The Board of Governors invested the other $10 million in two competitive programs: 15 Scholars Boost awards to assist in recruiting and retaining world-class faculty in areas critical to Florida, and 16

Clustering awards to promote new and exciting collaboration among faculty in teaching, research, and service especially important to solving certain of Florida’s major challenges. The 2010 Scholars Boost awards will support faculty in the following areas: mechanical, ocean, and biomedical engineering; renewable energy; nanomedicine; marine fisheries and ecosystems; nanoscience and chemistry; chemistry (National Magnetic Lab); veterinary medicine; health science; health services; marine science; and geology and geophysics. The areas being supported by the 2010 Clustering awards include community health, neuroscience, climate change, Southwest Florida coastal watersheds, aerospace, geophysical threats, cyber-infrastructure, prostheses, family medicine, biomedical engineering,

Professional Science Master’s degree programs, Smart Sensors, vector-borne diseases, and aging.

R&D Awards and Expenditures

The State University System continues to improve yearly in the most meaningful and generally accepted productivity indicators associated with university research and

development (R&D). During this year, faculty brought $1.3 billion in outside (federal, and all private and other resources) contracts and grant awards. This amount equaled half of the General Revenue and Lottery funds used to support the System during the year.

Contract and grant awards represent a broad measure that includes research, public service and outreach grants, and non-research training grants. However, the most commonly used measures for national comparisons are based on

research-only expenditures as reported to the National Science Foundation. In 2008-09, the State University System research-

only activities consisted of $1.1 billion in awards and $1.62 billion in expenditures (a 32% increase from its level five years earlier in 2004-05). The State University System’s R&D

expenditures have been consistently ranked 4th in the nation among public institutions.

The total academic R&D expenditures per full-time, tenured or tenure-earning faculty member in the System increased by $28,900 or 17% between 2004-05 and 2008-09, resulting in an average of $195,236 per faculty member. In 2008-09, the System ranked 11th _{in the nation among four-year public}

institutions in research expenditures per faculty member. Patents and Licenses

Other indicators of universities’ contributions to economic development are patents and licenses. These key metrics often represent the initial movement from laboratory bench to retail shelf. System patents increased 18.7% between 2004-05 and 2008-09. Of note in the System was UCF’s 3rd _{place ranking in}

the annual Patent Power Scorecards by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's leading professional association for the advancement of

technology. This ranking placed UCF with peers that included MIT, Harvard, the University of Texas, and Stanford. Licenses and options executed increased in the System by 80% between 2005 and 2009. UF is nationally regarded as a leader in

commercialization, increasing its annual licensing revenue from $37.4 million to $53.9 million over the past five years.

Centers of Excellence

Florida’s investment in creating 11 Centers of Excellence is paying substantial dividends. Since their inception with an

initial $84.5M state investment, the Centers have returned $251 million in competitive grants, and these Centers have made 223 invention disclosures, executed 43 licenses/options, received nearly a half million dollars in licensing income, started 30 companies in Florida, created 745 jobs, and

provided more than 100 specialized industry training sessions. [Reports for each of Centers of Excellence are included in Volume II of the Annual Report.]

State University Research Commercialization Grants The State University Research Commercialization Grants demonstrate that positive results are interspersed with the challenges associated with gaining traction in difficult fiscal times. For instance, at UF, the Phase I ASEDRA grant was determined technologically valid, with a company formed and work on the way to secure its first contract. Neuromagnetix is still under active development as a company. A Self-

Serilization company was formed, with investment capital still being raised. Curfacktor has formed a company and raised $1 million in capital investment, and Sharklet has raised $1.5 million in private investments.

At FSU, its commitment, to support the formation of a start-up company to develop products such as “buckypaper”, was based on technology from the FSU High Performance

Materials Institute, a Center of Excellence. Efforts to organize a company, however, have yet to succeed due to current physical constraints on buckypaper manufacture. UCF is in the process of opening up its Real World Laboratory, defining the partnerships, funding, and facility to begin product

development. At USF, its Phase I Early Stage RAID grant saw the submission and review of three RAID commercial

applications, the first of which was declined but

recommended for resubmission. The application is currently being redrafted for potential submission in the coming cycles, the process becoming streamlined and more efficient, with completion expected over the next year. [Reports on each of the State University Research Commercialization Grants are included in Volume II of the Annual Report.]

BOARD OF GOVERNORS – STATE UNIVERSITY

SYSTEM GOAL 4: MEETING COMMUNITY NEEDS AND