UCF – Valencia College Partnership Plans Shared Campus Downtown

By Balazs Szekely, Associate Editor

Visual rendering of the neighboring
Creative Village development

The University of Central Florida has recently announced that it is planning to create a new campus in downtown Orlando. UCF will share space with Valencia College in the new facility.

The proposed downtown campus has a capacity of 10,000 students from the two schools, according to a publication by the University of Central Florida. Valencia officials are assisting UCF throughout the planning which is currently in its early stages. The partnership would invoke state funds for the expansion. Plans are also contingent upon receiving approvals from the university’s Board of Trustees and the Florida Board of Governors that oversees the state’s 12 public universities. UCF received a state appropriation of $2 million for the feasibility study of the project. The two partners are considering the surroundings of Creative Village, a 68-acre mixed-use, transit oriented, urban infill neighborhood; also working closely with the Parramore community and the new K-8 school that is yet to be built in the area.

Valencia will most likely move its culinary and hospitality programs from the West Campus on Kirkman Road to the new downtown campus, along with its core general education classes for students pursuing Associate of Arts degrees, the college informs. UCF President Dr. John C. Hitt said the university is currently weighing up which of its academic programs would benefit the most from a move to the downtown location. As UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy and Center for Emerging Media are already downtown, Hitt believes the digital and visual arts segment is a possible candidate. On the same train of thought, he said UCF’s students in public service disciplines would also benefit by the proximity of city, county, state, and federal government offices.

“WUCF TV, with its strong community emphasis as the home of PBS in Central Florida, would thrive with a downtown location,” he says.

Image source: creativevillageorlando.com