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University of California limits non-resident enrollment on its campuses

May 19, 2017
Undergraduate enrollment will be limited to 18 percent at 5 campuses, and capped at current levels at 4 other campuses.

The University of California has placed limits on out-of-state enrollment at its nine undergraduate campuses.

The system's Board of Regents has approved a policy that caps nonresident enrollment at 18 percent at five campuses, At the other four campuses, where out-of-state and international student enrollment already exceeds 18 percent, nonresident enrollment will be capped at the proportion that each campus enrolls in the 2017–18 academic year.

The campuses capped at 18 percent: UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz.

The four campuses with higher caps: UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego.

“Our new nonresident enrollment policy strikes the right balance between UC’s continued commitment to putting California students first and the significant benefits that out-of-state and international students provide the university,” says UC system President Janet Napolitano. “This policy represents a broad consensus achieved after extensive consultation with regents, legislators and other stakeholders.”

The state’s Budget Act of 2016 called for the Board of Regents to adopt a policy limiting the number of undergraduate nonresidents as a condition for receiving $18.5 million to support the enrollment of an additional 2,500 California resident undergraduates in the coming academic year.

UC is on track to enroll an additional 2,500 Californians this fall, and enrolled more than 7,400 additional California residents in fall 2016, the largest year-to-year jump in California resident enrollment since the end of World War II.

Nonresident undergraduate students attending University of California campuses make up about 16.5 percent of total undergraduates systemwide, the university says, compared with an average of 27.9 percent for the public institutions in the Association of American Universities.

The Sacramento Bee reports that the University of California system stepped up its recruiting outside California’s borders after enduring $1 billion in state funding cuts during the recession. Out-of-state and foreign students pay a nearly $27,000 supplemental fee on top of their tuition, generating hundreds of millions of dollars per year for the university.

As its budget rebounded with the economic recovery, however, UC did not slow the flow of nonresidents. They account for more than 24 percent of teh enrollment at Berkeley and nearly 23 percent at San Diego and Los Angeles.

Simmering frustrations among state officials and families were ignited last year when an audit concluded that the tuition policy had resulted in a drop in Californians enrolled at the university. UC strongly disputed those findings, arguing that nonresidents helped pay for thousands of slots for Californians that were not funded by the state.

About the Author

Mike Kennedy | Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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