UC’s California student enrollment climbs for fourth straight year

University of California’s continuing commitment to making higher education accessible to more Californians, enrollment of in-state undergraduates rose for the fourth consecutive year in fall 2019.

For fall 2019, UC enrolled 2,614 additional California undergraduates, an upward tick of 1.4 percent from last year for a total of 185,559 in-state students. This trajectory underscores UC’s push, with the support of the state Legislature, to increase access for California students; the University has added 17,369 in-state undergraduates since 2015-16. This follows UC’s recent achievement of its fall 2016 goal to enroll an additional 10,000 California undergraduates over three years.

“A growing student body means expanded opportunities for a new generation of young people,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. “The University of California is looking forward to providing these talented, hardworking students a world-class education, while expanding access for future Californians.”

Systemwide, UC’s overall roster of both resident and out-of-state enrollees grew by an additional 4,968 students, which includes 3,632 undergraduates and 1,231 graduates. Total university enrollment stands at 291,239 students, up 1.7 percent from 286,271 last year. The campuses with the largest enrollment gains are UC Riverside (1,622 students), UC Irvine (876 students) and UC San Diego (849 students).

Across UC’s nine undergraduate campuses, total undergraduate enrollment stands at 226,125 students, an increase of 3,632 students or 1.6 percent from last year. Systemwide enrollment of graduate students climbed for the seventh consecutive year to 58,941, up 2.1 percent from 57,710 last year.

University enrollment has grown by more than 100,000 full-time students since 2000. Building on this momentum, UC aims to grant 200,000 more degrees to graduates by 2030, on top of the one million degrees the university is projected to award between 2015 and 2030.