Mission Statement

Approved by BOR, July 28, 1988; revised, May 21, 1999; updated 2002

Mission.  The Florida State University is a comprehensive, graduate-research university with a liberal arts base.  It offers undergraduate, graduate, advanced graduate, and professional programs of study; conducts extensive research, and provides service to the public in accord with its statewide mission.  The University's primary role is to serve as a center for advanced graduate and professional studies while emphasizing research and providing excellence in undergraduate programs.

In accordance with the University's mission, faculty members have been selected for their commitment to excellence in teaching, their ability in research and creative activity, and their interest in public service.  Among the faculty are recipients of many national and international honors, who have included four Nobel laureates and ten members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Given its history, location, and accomplishments, The Florida State University does not expect major changes in its mission during the next decade.  Rather, it sees further refinement of that mission with concentration on its strong liberal arts base and on quality in its teaching, research, and public service.  The University has established its reputation upon areas of strength by building excellence in the four components of the Science Development Program-physics, chemistry, psychobiology (now neuroscience), and statistics-together with the physical, biological, earth, and mathematical sciences closely related to them.  Excellence in these and related areas, particularly materials science, resulted in relocation of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to Florida State. Enhancement of the fine and performing arts began with the establishment of the Center for Music Research in the already prestigious School of Music and includes prominent programs in Theatre, Dance, and the Visual Arts.  Within the areas of humanities, the Departments of English, Philosophy, Religion, and Humanities are particularly distinguished.  Special emphasis in economic policy and government has been directed to the College of Social Sciences' Departments of Economics, Geography, Political Science, Urban and Regional Planning, and School of Public Administration and Policy and to its DeVoe L. Moore and Family Center for Economic Policy and Government and the public policy components of the School of Criminology, the School of Social Work, and the College of Education.

The University's location in the state's capital city provides great opportunity for service and interaction among governmental agencies and the social science and professional schools, especially the colleges of Business and Law and the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy.  Special resources, such as the School of Computational Science and Information Technology and the Florida State Conference Center, enhance its ability to deliver such service.  The University is strongly committed to its mission in international education.  It provides study-abroad opportunities for its students and faculty through the Florence and London Study Centers, which it operates for the State University System, and through programs in Barbados, Costa Rica, the Republic of Panama, Switzerland, Russia, Cetamura, Italy, Oxford, England, and in Central and Eastern Europe.  The University co-sponsors Florida bi-national linkage institutes in Costa Rica and France.

As a comprehensive residential state university, The Florida State University attracts students from every county in Florida, every state in the nation, and 139 foreign countries.  The University is committed to high admission standards that ensure quality in its student body, which currently includes 577 National Merit, National Achievement and Hispanic scholars, as well as students with superior creative talents.  It also provides alternative admission and highly successful retention programs for special student populations.  Most students pursue a full-time course of study in normal progression from high school or undergraduate institutions.  Graduate students, who comprise 17.8 percent of the student body, are enrolled in over 204 graduate degree programs of which 72, covering 133 fields, are doctoral.  The median age of all students is 23.7 and approximately 12.5 percent, mostly graduate students, are over 31 years old.