Tia Mitchell | Staff Reporter, December 17, 2012, Miami Herald
Florida’s 12th university became a reality earlier this year, and there is already discussion about whether the state needs a 13th.

House Speaker Will Weatherford challenged the board governing state universities to look into creating an online-only school in order to increase access to distance education. And Monday, the Board of Governors received the results of an independent study on the topic and discussed next steps.

Conducted by The Parthenon Group, the report outlines four options for Florida’s universities and colleges, both public and private.

The first allows each school to continue operating its own distance education program, represented the status quo, and it got the least amount of support from the Board of Governors’ Strategic Planning Committee.

The second and third options — systemwide collaboration or allowing one or more institutions to serve as the lead drivers of new programs — got a more positive response.

The committee asked staff to research a hybrid of these two choices ahead of next month’s full board meeting.

Continue reading on the Miami Herald website.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily the positions of UFF-UF.