Beginning in fall 2016, we committed to increasing our enrollment of California resident undergraduate students by 10,000 over three years. Last year, we exceeded our first-year goal, adding more than 7,500 California undergraduate students. With continued state funding for enrollment expansion, we plan to add another 2,500 undergraduates in 2017-18.
While this is wonderful news, it has resulted in a growing imbalance between graduate and undergraduate enrollment. This trend is worrisome for UC and for the state. Graduate students play a vital role in educating and mentoring undergraduates, attracting the most talented faculty members, and contributing to the university’s research mission and, upon graduation, to the skill base and economy of the state of California.
In our 2017-18 budget request to the governor, we asked for $9 million to support an additional 900 graduate students, consistent with the cost of instruction. The governor did not include this appropriation in his preliminary budget, released in January.
For more about admissions and enrollment, see the 2016 Accountability Report.