UF will invite about 2,000 transfer students to enroll Tuesday - about 1,000 fewer than last year.
Earlier this semester, Florida Board of Governors, the State University System's highest governing body, asked public universities to cut enrollment for next year to save money in light of state budget shortfalls.
It was too late to cut undergraduate and graduate admissions, but UF had time to reevaluate how many transfer students to accept, said UF Provost Janie Fouke.
Transfer acceptances were postponed for about four weeks.
"It was probably the least we could do without being very disruptive to the community," Fouke said of the reduction.
Anne Kress, SFCC provost and vice president for academic affairs, said it's not great news for community college students.
But Kress said she understands it probably wasn't an easy decision for UF to make.
"It will undoubtedly affect some of our students," Kress said.
"How many at this point is unclear."
Janine Sikes, UF spokeswoman, said the Office of Admissions didn't have records of how many SFCC students apply for transfer to UF, but it was a "significant number."
If acceptance letters for UF freshman hadn't been sent out on Feb. 15, some spots could've been snatched there, too, Sikes said.
Fouke said in light of budget cuts, admitting fewer freshmen next year is likely.
"We need to see how this works this year before we can predict what will happen," she said.
Sikes said this reduction aims to shrink the student-to-faculty ratio in the long term versus simply saving money.
UF is currently ranked nearly last in terms of student-faculty ratios nationwide.
"We're also losing tuition by not having these students, so it's not a total cost-cutting measure," Sikes said.
