This Week in the 904: UNF president talks expansion, future plans for the school

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The University of North Florida is growing and wants to get even bigger with aggressive goals.

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The expansion is underway with construction cranes and more graduate degrees offered.

In Sunday’s edition of “This Week in the 904,” UNF’s president told Action News Jax’s John Bachman his plan to keep pace with the fastest-growing region and even hinted at expanding to Downtown Jacksonville.

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Dr. Moez Limayem said UNF is working to keep pace with Northeast Florida’s explosive growth.

“Wall Street Journal just a few weeks ago ranked our region as the second hottest job market in the U.S., so that is really great for our students and really great for our community,” Limayem said. “We are currently at around 17,000 students. We want to grow by 2028. I always joke with the team that by the 30th of June at 5 p.m., 2028, we will be at 25,000.”

The growth of UNF is already underway with construction cranes on campus building new housing and other facilities. The university has added graduate programs to attract new students, and Dr. Limayem said that adding more research opportunities will be another way to attract more students.

“We’re laser-focused on the need for our business community areas like technology, fintech, cyber security, data, data science ... You look at where we are with the incredible expansions at the port here with supply chain and logistics transportation,” Limayem explained.

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With all the growth on campus and so much focus on downtown development, John had to ask if UNF was going to participate in any of the movements downtown. Limayem said, “As we speak, we have task forces thinking about plans on how we can strengthen our offerings downtown. At the same time, we are discussing with our friends at UF how we can work together for the good of the community and the good of the students from both universities.”

You can hear more from Dr. Moez Limayem and other local leaders on Action News Jax’s public affairs show, “This Week in the 904,” which runs on Sundays.

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