Campus Enrollment and the Master Plan for Higher Education

Appendix to Position Paper

December 2004

Although the Master Plan for Higher Education (MPHE) actually overestimated the 2020 population of California by 10 million (see next page), it placed a student enrollment maximum of 27,500 on UC campuses (with an optimum enrollment of 12,000). The proposed 2020 LRDP ignores and violates this 27,500 limit. But at the same time UC uses the MPHE to justify enrollment expansion by citing UC’s “mandate” to accept the 12.5% of California’s high school students (LRDP 3.1–13, and others). But if anything the recommendation that the enrollment maximum be 27,500 was stronger than the recommendation that UC “select from” the top 12.5% of California's high school graduates. The enrollment maximum was recommended in spite of massive expected population increases and the existing shortage of campuses. The 12.5% acceptance pool, on the other hand, was recommended as a decrease from existing practice, obviously not to broaden students’ access to UC, but only and specifically to maintain a high-quality student body.

Recommendation on high school acceptance rate (MPHE 72, 73):

Other methods by which students are admitted to the University of California and the state colleges are discussed earlier in this chapter. Taking these into account, it is estimated that approximately 15 per cent of public high school graduates qualify for admission to the University of California and some 50 per cent to the state colleges [...] The recommendation which follows is that these per cents be reduced to 12.5 and 33 respectively. [italics added]

“In order to raise materially standards for admission to the lower division, the state colleges select first-time freshmen from the top one-third (33 per cent) and the University from the top one-eighth (12.5 percent) of all graduates of California public high schools [...]” [italics added]

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