University of Florida was state-funded in 1853 when East Florida Seminary took over the Kingsbury Academy in Ocala. In 1860s the seminary moved to Gainesville and later consolidated with the state’s land-grant Florida Agricultural College, then in Lake City. University of Florida is a major, public, comprehensive, land-grant, research university. As the state’s oldest, largest and most comprehensive university and the nation’s fourth largest, University of Florida enrolls approximately 50,000 students annually and is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes.

Located on the tropical Treasure Coast of Florida, Indian River Community College is a comprehensive college that serves the diverse and multicultural communities of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties. Accredited by the Commision of Colleges of the Southern Associatoin of colleges and Schools to award the Associate Degree, IRCC offers a wide range of degree and certificate programs which includes: Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, and Assoicate in Applied Science degrees, as well as shorter-term certificate programs.

The Vero Beach Marine Laboratory (VBML) is a field laboratory established in 1981 in support of marine science research and education for the academic programs and research institutes of Florida Institute of Technology. The facility is administered through the Department of Marine and Environmental Systems located on the main campus of the university in Melbourne, Florida.

The VBML facility is located on five acres on the oceanfront of the barrier island beach just north of Vero Beach, Florida. Florida Institute of Technology is a fully accredited, independent university offering a variety of degree programs in the marine sciences. The Department of Marine and Environmental Systems' Oceanography and Ocean Engineering programs offer bachelor of science degrees in biological oceanography, chemical oceanography, physical oceanography, marine environmental studies and ocean engineering, and master of science degrees are offered in biological oceanography, meteorology, chemical oceanography, coastal processes and engineering, coastal zone management, geological oceanography, marine vehicles and ocean systems, materials and structures, physical oceanography, and underwater technology. Doctoral degrees are offered in oceanography, environmental sciences and ocean engineering. The department of biological sciences also offers a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in biology with specialization in marine biology or aquaculture.