Visit UC's 10 campuses online Berkeley Davis Irvine UCLA Merced Riverside San Diego San Francisco Santa Barbara Santa Cruz Summary of UC systemwide programs in the Valley (pdf)

The University of California, one of the largest and most acclaimed institutions of higher learning in the world, is dedicated to excellence in teaching, research, and public service.

For more than a century, the university has contributed greatly to the San Joaquin Valley, its people, and the local economy. UC conducts valuable research and implements a wide variety of unparalleled educational, health care, and agricultural programs in the valley. Equally important, the university is helping to better prepare valley students for college and expand their access to an affordable UC education.

Chartered in 1868, as California's only land grant institution, UC began classes in Oakland with ten faculty members and 38 students. Presently, the university encompasses ten campuses, five medical schools and teaching hospitals, three law schools and a statewide Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. UC also manages three national laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy.

In 1888, the university opened a research station in Tulare to study drainage and salinity problems. In fact, university intervention more than one hundred years ago helped transform the valley's once harsh environment into the fertile land known today. In 1986, UC established a regional office in Fresno to forge a link between the university and the people of the Central Valley. In 1995, after a multi-year site selection process, the UC Board of Regents took an historic first step toward the development of a new UC campus in the San Joaquin Valley by choosing a site in Merced County. UC Merced - the tenth UC campus and the nation's first research university to be built in the 21st century - is scheduled to open in 2005.

UC is shaping the Valley's future today. The University of California's commitment to the region is stronger than ever with nearly 40 UC offices and facilities from San Joaquin and Tuolumne Counties in the north to Kern County in the south.

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