page_title: Lakeland, Florida
section_title: Colleges and universities
hierarchical_section_title: Lakeland, Florida / Education / Colleges and universities
caption_attribution_description: Long exposure photograph taken of the Florida Polytechnic buildning designed by architect Santiago Calatrava at sunset.
context_page_description: Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. The westernmost city in Polk County, it is part of the Tampa Bay Area. According to the 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 112,136. Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area.
  Native Americans lived in the area from soon after the end of the last ice age until the end of the Second Seminole War. European-American settlers arrived in Lakeland from South Carolina in the 1870s. The city expanded in the 1880s with the arrival of rail service, with the first freedmen railway workers settling here in 1883. They and European immigrants also came because of new jobs in the large phosphate industry that developed. Lakeland is home to the 1,267-acre Circle B Bar Reserve.
context_section_description: Everest University
  Florida Polytechnic
  Florida Southern College
  Florida Technical College
  Keiser University
  Webster University
  Polk State College
  Southeastern University
  Whitefield Theological Seminary
  A number of opportunities exist for higher education around the Lakeland area. Southeastern University is the largest university in the area, with undergraduate enrollment around 6200.  Southeastern is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. Florida Southern College, established in 1883 and with a current undergraduate enrollment of just over 2600, is on Lake Hollingsworth.  Florida Southern is the home of the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. In July 2008, the University of South Florida's Lakeland campus was granted partial autonomy by Governor Charlie Crist and became Florida Polytechnic University. Florida Polytechnic (FLPoly) is just inside the Lakeland's northeast border at the intersection of I-4 and Polk Parkway. They also have some administrative offices on the campus of Polk State College on Winter Lake Road. FLPoly is focused on STEM degree programs, such as engineering and computer science. Both Everest University and Keiser University, two multisite, accredited universities, have locations in Lakeland. Traviss Career Center is a vocational school. Webster University offers on-site, regionally accredited graduate degree programs in business and counseling at their Lakeland Metropolitan Campus
caption: The IST building of Florida Polytechnic University
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