Report puts UCF among top universities for Hispanic students

About 5,000 Hispanic students graduate from the University of Central Florida (UCF) annually — many with bachelor’s degrees — and per the monthly magazine Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education, that makes UCF No. 4 in the nation in awarding four-year diplomas to Hispanic students.

Hispanic Outlook released rankings Monday that put UCF among the top in the nation for Hispanic students.

The UCF numbers are representative of the geographic area it serves and the nation at large, according to UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright.

“UCF looks like the future of America,” Cartwright said. “We are proud to have the tremendous opportunity to help our Hispanic and Latino students succeed and fuel the talent pipeline for industry.”

For four years, UCF has held the status of a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.

The rankings, which surveyed the 2020-2021 academic year, also put UCF in top 5 for engineering, computer science and visual performing arts degrees awarded to Hispanic students.

There’s a chance UCF fares even better in next year’s rankings.

From 2021-22, UCF awarded 4,429 bachelor’s degrees and 583 master’s degrees to Hispanic students — a jump from the previous dataset of 4,240 bachelor’s degrees and 563 master’s degrees awarded.

There are ongoing initiatives at UCF targeted toward facilitating success for Hispanic students in STEM.

UCF and partner schools are using $250,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation “to improve pathways for Hispanic/Latino/a/x students to STEM graduate programs,” according to a university news release.

Among those benefitting from the programs is industrial engineering major Diego Alonso, who has been part of the College Work Experience Program with the nearby Lockheed Martin.

Alonso said the experience let him “venture outside of the textbooks and finally explore what industrial engineering is really like in the professional world.”

According to Pew Research, Hispanic populations are not proportionally represented in STEM.