Florida’s State University System

Florida’s State University System has 12 public universities, all named in section 1000.21 of the Florida Statutes (Florida Statutes).

The list runs: the University of Florida, Florida State, Florida A&M, South Florida, Florida Atlantic, West Florida, Central Florida, North Florida, Florida International, Florida Gulf Coast, New College of Florida and Florida Polytechnic. The statute counts each university together with its branch campuses, centers and affiliates; the system’s cost report, for example, leaves USF-Sarasota Manatee out of its tables because that campus has no residential students (Board of Governors). The Board of Governors says the policies and regulations it adopts reach 12 institutions and more than 430,000 students annually (State University System of Florida).

The system office sits at 325 West Gaines Street in Tallahassee, phone (850) 245-0466, and its Chancellor, Ray Rodrigues, is the Board of Governors’ chief executive and its main liaison with the Legislature, the governor’s office and state agencies (Board of Governors).

Last verified: October 19, 2026, by re-reading the Board of Governors 2026-27 cost of attendance report and Allocation Summary, Article IX, Section 7 of the constitution, and sections 1000.21 and 1009.24 of the 2026 statutes.

A 17-member Board of Governors governs the whole Florida university system under Article IX, Section 7 of the state constitution, which makes it fully responsible for managing the system, subject to the Legislature’s power to appropriate money (Florida Constitution).

The governor appoints fourteen of the members, who are confirmed by the Senate and serve staggered seven-year terms. The other three seats belong to the commissioner of education, the chair of the advisory council of faculty senates and the president of the Florida student association (Article IX, Section 7). The constitution assigns the board specific jobs: defining the distinct mission of each university and how it connects with free public schools and community colleges, coordinating the system and avoiding wasteful duplication of facilities or programs.

The constitutional language dates from a citizen initiative filed in 2001 and adopted in 2002, with an amendment proposed by the 2018 Constitution Revision Commission as Revision No. 2 and adopted in 2018 (Florida Constitution). The same article also says the board’s management answers to the Legislature’s spending decisions, and that the board must account for its expenditures as provided by law.

Each Florida state university has a 13-member board of trustees: six citizens appointed by the governor, five appointed by the Board of Governors, plus the university’s faculty senate chair and student body president (Florida Constitution).

The appointed trustees are confirmed by the Senate and serve staggered five-year terms, and the Board of Governors sets the trustees’ powers and duties (Article IX, Section 7). Fee decisions carry a supermajority: any proposal to raise, impose or authorize a fee needs at least nine trustee votes and, when Board of Governors approval is required, at least twelve votes on that board. Tuition itself is excluded from that rule.

Trustees also set graduate and professional tuition and out-of-state fees for nonresident students, subject to Board of Governors approval, and the combined charge to nonresidents must be enough to cover the full cost of their instruction (Florida Statutes s. 1009.24). Every Florida state university must publicly notice any proposal to change tuition or fees at least 28 days before its trustees consider it (2026-27 Allocation Summary).

Resident undergraduate tuition at every Florida state university is $105.07 per credit hour in 2026-27, because the 2026 Legislature did not recommend a base undergraduate tuition increase, and state law sets that rate effective July 1, 2014 (Board of Governors 2026-27 Allocation Summary).

Section 1009.24 of the Florida Statutes fixes that rate for both lower-level and upper-level coursework (Florida Statutes). Tuition and fees in the cost of attendance report differ by school for a full-time Florida resident, for example $4,940 a year at Florida Polytechnic and $6,689 at New College of Florida, with a system average of $6,093 (2026-27 cost of attendance report).

Two changes took effect for 2026-27. House Bill 5601-E, effective June 29, 2026, lets trustees set graduate and professional tuition and out-of-state fees with Board of Governors approval and removed the previous 15 percent annual cap on increases; on June 25, 2026 the Board of Governors authorized New College of Florida and Florida Polytechnic University to raise out-of-state fees by up to 15 percent; New College’s trustees had approved a 15 percent increase in December 2025 and Florida Polytechnic’s in May 2026, both starting in fall 2026 (Allocation Summary). A student who takes the same undergraduate course more than twice is assessed a total of $241.81 per credit hour on top of regular tuition and fees under Board Regulation 7.001(10), a decrease of $19.25 from the prior fiscal year.

A full-time Florida resident living on campus faces an average cost of attendance of $26,861 for fall and spring 2026-27, according to the Board of Governors (State University System cost of attendance report).

The table gives the on-campus figures the Board of Governors reports for each Florida university.

Housing and food averages $14,340 a year for Florida residents on campus (2026-27 cost of attendance report). Living off campus averages $27,475, and living at home averages $18,954, with housing and food at $6,113. The figures also include books and supplies (average $1,176), transportation and other expenses such as laundry, phones and health insurance. The Board of Governors’ tuition and fees page posts the same reports back to 2016-17 and a fee history from 1978-79, useful for checking how a university’s fees have moved.