Higher Education in California

Higher education is education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, technical colleges, and other collegial institutions that award academic degrees, such as career colleges.

The higher education in California consists of:

• University of California (UC)
• California State University (CSU)
• California Community Colleges system
• Private universities and colleges

UC

The UC system has 10 major campuses located in Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, Davis, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Riverside, Merced and San Francisco. The UC system is intended to accept students from the top 12.5% of college-bound students, and provide most graduate studies and research. It has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students.

CSU

The CSU system is composed of 23 campuses and has over 450,000 students supported by 47,000 faculty members and staff. It is intended to accept the top one-third (1/3) of high school students.

CCCS

The California Community Colleges System (CCCS) consists of 110 community colleges in 72 community college districts serving more than 2.5 million students.

AICCU

Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU)

Last Updated: October 27, 2008