The University of Central Florida (UCF) is an American public research university in Orlando, Florida and founded in 1963, UCF opened to provide personnel to support the U.S. space program at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's Space Coast. It is the largest university in the United States by undergraduate enrollment, and the second largest by total enrollment.

The university offers over 200 degrees through thirteen colleges and twelve satellite campuses in Central Florida. Since its founding, UCF has awarded almost 280,000 degrees, including 50,000 graduate and professional degrees, to over 240,000 alumni worldwide.

As its academic scope broadened, it was renamed from Florida Technological University to the University of Central Florida in 1978. While initial enrollment was only 1,948 students, enrollment today amounts to some 60,821 students from 140 countries and all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The majority of the student population is located on the university's main campus just 13 miles (21 km) east-northeast of downtown Orlando, and 55 miles (89 km) southwest of Daytona Beach.