Preserving Access and Affordability
UC has a proud record of providing quality, access, and affordability to the highest achieving California students seeking a college education.
Today, the University continues to offer a place to all students in the top 12.5% of the high school graduating class – as well as significant numbers of community college transfer students – as specified in the California Master Plan for Higher Education. As the state has grown, competition has increased for admission to the most selective campuses. However, expansion of existing campuses and the opening of the new UC Merced campus have allowed every student meeting UC’s eligibility requirements to be offered a place somewhere in the system.
When they come to UC, these students perform very well. Their graduation rates compare very favorably to those of students at other public institutions across the country. For the past two decades, UC's graduation rates have been about 75% annually, and have grown steadily in recent years.
These success rates are all the more notable in the context of the socioeconomic diversity of UC students. When universities across the country, are ranked according to the proportion of their students who are low-income Pell Grant recipients, UC campuses come out at the very top.
In addition, nearly 50% of UC students come from homes where English is not the primary language, and 57% of entering UC freshmen now report that they are either first- or second-generation immigrants to the United States.
Despite these successes in providing access, UC remains constrained in its ability to enroll underrepresented minority students. UC eligibility rates for Latinos and African Americans have increased in recent years but still lag well behind those of Asian Americans and whites – largely a result of inequities in educational opportunity in California’s K-12 public schools.
And while the percentage of underrepresented students among UC incoming students continues to rise, these enrollments are not keeping pace with growth in underrepresented students among the California public high school graduating class.
What other issues should we consider?