As President Dr. Martha Saunders prepares to hand over her job, University of West Florida Provost Dr. Jaromy Kuhl announced to UWF Board of Trustees last week that UWF achieved remarkable success in the 2025 Performance-Based Funding metrics, earning a score of 91 out of 100 points and tying for third place statewide with Florida State University. See PBF Metric Score Report.
- Only Florida International University (96) and the University of Florida (94) scored higher.
Key Performance Highlights
Overall Achievement: UWF’s score of 91 represents an impressive seven-point increase from the previous year’s score of 84, placing the university among the top performers in Florida’s State University System alongside FIU (96), UF (94), FSU (91), and USF (89).
Excellence Across Metrics: The university earned perfect scores (10 points) on seven of the ten performance metrics:
- Graduate Employment/Education (Metric 1): 80.1% of bachelor’s graduates are employed, earning $40,000+ or continuing education one year after graduation – ranking second statewide
- Graduate Wages (Metric 2): Median wage of $54,000 for employed graduates
- Cost Efficiency (Metric 3): Net tuition and fees of only $2,810 per 120 credit hours
- Strategic Programs (Metric 6): 60.8% of bachelor’s degrees awarded in strategic emphasis areas
- High-Impact Practices (Metric 10): 68.9% of students completing multiple high-impact educational experiences
Areas of Significant Improvement
Four-Year Graduation Rate: The university demonstrated substantial progress in four-year graduation rates for full-time students, improving from 48.1% to 53.7% – a 5.6 percentage point increase that earned maximum improvement points despite falling short of the excellence benchmark.
Academic Progress: UWF improved its second-year retention rate with a GPA above 2.0 from 86.8% to 87.8%, earning 8 excellence points.
System Rankings
UWF achieved top-three rankings in multiple categories:
- 2nd place in graduate employment/continuing education rates
- 3rd place in graduate wages, university access rates, and graduate degrees in strategic areas
Financial Implications
As one of the top three scoring institutions, UWF can receive additional state investment funding distributed among the highest-performing universities. The performance-based funding model rewards institutions that excel in key metrics tied to student success and state priorities.
Looking Forward
Dr. Kuhl emphasized that while celebrating these achievements, the university continues focusing on graduation rate improvements and preparing for evolving metrics. “We performed well, and we still have a lot of work to do.”
- The performance-based funding system evaluates Florida’s 12 state universities across ten metrics measuring student success, cost efficiency, and alignment with state workforce needs. UWF’s strong performance reflects the institution’s commitment to providing quality, affordable education that prepares graduates for successful careers.
The Performance Metrics are supposedly how the Board of Governors, Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Legislature and the public are to judge our state universities. No Florida university has improved more under the measurement system than UWF.