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Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers keeps on growing.

Even with state budget cuts, the decade-old university continues to expand and focus on ways to help the region’s economy and to protect the environment, FGCU President Wilson Bradshaw said during a talk Tuesday to the Real Estate Investment Society in Fort Myers.

On Saturday, the university president will travel overseas to Europe as part of a Team Florida business development mission led by Gov. Charlie Crist.

When the governor asked him to come along, Bradshaw wasted no time in saying yes. The 12-day mission is focused on Florida’s “aviation, defense and climate change sectors.”

As part of its effort to be an environmental leader in the community, FGCU is building a 16-acre solar field to help power its campus.

Bradshaw, a Florida native who became the university’s third president nearly a year ago, is eager to hear what others are doing to try to save energy.

“I’m looking forward to going and hearing new ideas, and sharing some of the things that we are doing,” he said.

The mission will take delegates to London, France, Russia and Spain. The group includes representatives for Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development arm; Dale Brill, the state’s director of tourism and trade, and Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.

Other notables going on the trip are Progress Energy Florida CEO Jeff Lyash, TECO Power Chief Executive Sherrill Hudson, Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan, and former state Rep. Gaston Cantens, a vice president for Florida Crystals.

While the environment is a definite focus for FGCU, so is its growth.

“I see it out of my window every day and it’s exciting,” Bradshaw said.

This fall, FGCU will enroll more than 10,000 students, open new buildings for its business, engineering and hospitality schools, and add a new 400-bed dormitory designed for freshmen.

He said the ultimate goal is to have about 25 percent of the students living on campus.

There will be about 2,000 students filling its dorms this fall, Bradshaw said.

“That’s awesome,” he said.

Soon, the university will break ground on a health sciences building and another 400-bed dormitory.

“We are building a campus, folks, for 20,000 students,” said Bradshaw, who spoke to a gathering of more than 100 at the Pelican Preserve clubhouse off Colonial Boulevard, just east of Interstate 75.

The university continues to look at research opportunities and is acting as a catalyst for a regional branding campaign designed to draw more businesses to the area, Bradshaw said.

This fall, FGCU will begin offering its first doctoral program for physical therapy. More doctoral programs are in the works.

Bradshaw described the university as a “phenomenon” that gets “a lot of attention and respect.”

He tipped his hat to the two presidents before him, whom he described as visionaries.

He talked about his disappointment in not getting all the money he’d hoped for from the state Legislature this year.

For its enrollment growth, FGCU could have received more than $15 million. It didn’t get a penny. So the university has been forced to suspend some programs, including plans for a new journalism degree program, Bradshaw said.

Still, it is finding ways not to cut its staff.

“We simply can’t afford layoffs because we are growing,” Bradshaw said.

The university is investing $1.5 million in new faculty by shifting its money around and making other cutbacks, he said.

“We are not like any other university in this state,” he said. “We are at a critical stage in our development.”

Nearly 65 percent of FGCU’s students come from Southwest Florida, making it that much more important to the local economy, Bradshaw said.

About 80 percent of its students are undergraduates.

The top three fields of study at the university are business, education, and resort and hospitality management, Bradshaw said.

By 2012, the university expects to have about 15,000 students. A few years later, enrollment is projected to grow to 20,000.

Bradshaw called that “amazing growth” for a regional state university.

“We have a lot to do,” he said. “It’s exciting work.”

After his talk, Bradshaw fielded a half-dozen questions. One was about the college of engineering and the number of programs it offers.

Susan Blanchard, the college’s founding director, stood up to explain that three degrees are offered in bioengineering, civil engineering and environmental engineering. There are no immediate plans to add more, she said.

The first priority is to get the engineering school accredited, which isn’t expected to happen until fall 2009, she said.

The process can’t start until the first students graduate.

“We have every confidence we will be successful,” Blanchard said.

Another question asked of Bradshaw was how long it would be before FGCU gets a football team. He didn’t have an exact answer, saying only that it is “in our future.”

“I don’t think it’s in the next two to three years,” he said. “We’re going to be looking at that.”

After the meeting, Steve Hartsell, president of the Real Estate Investment Society, said it’s always good to hear an update on the progress at FGCU. The society’s members are the ones who helped attract the university and get it built in Southwest Florida, he pointed out.

He said he was glad to hear about the university’s continued growth and its investment in new faculty.

“FGCU is a big part of our community,” he said.