About UCLA
Few universities in the world offer the extraordinary range and diversity of academic programs that students enjoy at UCLA. Leadership in teaching, research, and public service make UCLA a beacon of excellence in higher education, as students, faculty, and staff come together in a true community of scholars to advance knowledge, address societal challenges, and pursue intellectual and personal fulfillment.
Teaching
The Conference Board of Associated Research Councils, which evaluates the quality of the faculty in 274 American research universities, rates UCLA fourteenth in the nation among both public and private universities. Of the 41 doctoral degree disciplines studied, 11 UCLA academic departments are ranked among the top 10 in the country and 20 are ranked among the top 20.
Distinguished faculty members at UCLA include Nobel prizewinners, Guggenheim fellows, Sloan fellows, and Fulbright scholars, as well as numerous members of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In fact, UCLA consistently places among the leading universities nationwide in the number of these prestigious awards granted to its faculty members.
This remarkable pool of talent is shared between one college and 11 professional schools. The College of Letters and Science offers programs leading to both undergraduate and graduate degrees, as do the School of the Arts and Architecture, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Nursing, and School of Theater, Film, and Television. The other professional schools offer graduate programs exclusively: the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, School of Law, John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, School of Public Affairs and, in the health sciences, the School of Dentistry, David Geffen School of Medicine, and School of Public Health.
Undergraduates may earn a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of 124 different disciplines; graduate students may earn one of 89 master's and 108 doctoral and professional degrees.
Academic programs undergo continuous review and evaluation to maintain their excellence, and new degree programs are added as they are approved by the Academic Senate or The Regents.
Research
Pushing the boundaries of the known, UCLA researchers--faculty and students, both graduate and undergraduate--venture every day into un-charted worlds from the molecular to the galactic.
Whether it's tracing the roots of urban decay, pioneering new drug therapies for cancer, or revealing a black hole at the center of our galaxy, research at UCLA is advancing the frontiers of knowledge.
Among the 10 leading research universities in the country, UCLA received $755 million in 2003-04 in extramural grants and contracts to support its research. Each year it hosts hundreds of postdoctoral scholars who share its facilities.
Its laboratories have seen major breakthroughs in scientific and medical research; its study centers have helped foster understanding among the various cultures of the world; ongoing pursuits of new knowledge in vital areas continue to improve the quality of life for people around the world.
Faculty members teach both undergraduate and graduate courses and, through their research, create knowledge as well as transmit it. At UCLA, students are taught by the people making the discoveries. They exchange ideas with faculty members who are authorities in their fields and, even as undergraduates, are encouraged to participate in research to experience firsthand the discovery of new knowledge.
Service
As a public university, serving the community is one of UCLA's greatest commitments. Undergraduate and graduate programs, research activities, community outreach programs, and grass-roots participation by students, faculty, staff, and alumni help to forge a partnership between the University and the entire Los Angeles region.
With a new state-of-the-art hospital to open in 2006, UCLA furthers its tradition of medical outreach and assures the highest quality of care to Los Angeles and the world. Low-income families receive top-quality treatment from School of Dentistry clinics on campus, in Venice, or in east Los Angeles. The Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center's Rape Treatment Center offers 24-hour care to victims. The School of Public Health's Community Health Promotion Program supports community-service projects to benefit poor and underserved communities, and the School of Nursing offers care through its nurse-managed clinic at Skid Row's Union Rescue Mission. The University also supports K-12 enhancement programs such as the School of the Arts and Architecture's Music Partnership Program, which funds UCLA students to be academic and musical mentors for at-risk youth.
As UCLA gives to the community, Los Angeles gives something back. The University's arts and cultural programs, for example, attract more than half a million people each year, drawn by everything from world-class acts performing at Royce Hall to classic-film screenings from the School of Theater, Film, and Television archives. These relationships create opportunities for partnerships and growth that ensure UCLA's preeminence into the twenty-first century and beyond.
The University of California System
The University of California traces its origins to 1868, when Governor Henry H. Haight signed the Organic Act providing for California’s first “complete University.” Classes began the following year at the College of California in Oakland. The first buildings on the Berkeley campus were completed in 1873, and the University moved into its new home. The following June, the University conferred bachelor’s degrees on 12 graduates.
Today the University is one of the largest and most renowned centers of higher education in the world. Its 10 campuses span the state, from Davis in the north to San Diego in the south. In between are Berkeley, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Merced, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Irvine and, of course, Los Angeles.
All campuses adhere to the same admission guidelines and high academic standards, yet each has its own distinct character and academic individuality. Riverside, for example, excels in the plant sciences and entomology; Davis has a large agricultural school and the University’s only veterinary medicine program; San Diego has excellent oceanography and marine biology programs; San Francisco is devoted exclusively to the health sciences. Among the campuses there are five medical schools and three law schools, as well as schools of architecture, business administration, education, engineering, and many others.
The UC campuses have a combined enrollment exceeding 201,000 students, over 90 percent of them California residents. About one fifth study at the graduate level. Some 150 laboratories, extension centers, and research and field stations strengthen teaching and research while providing public service to California and the nation. The collections of over 100 UC libraries on the 10 campuses are surpassed in size on the American continent only by the Library of Congress collection.
The UC faculty is internationally known for its distinguished academic achievements. On its 10 campuses the University has 27 Nobel laureates, and membership in the National Academy of Sciences is the largest of any university in the country.
The UC system is governed by a Board of Regents whose regular members are appointed by the Governor of California. In addition to setting general policy and making budgetary decisions for the UC system, The Regents appoint the President of the University, the 10 chancellors, and the directors and deans who administer the affairs of the individual campuses and divisions of the University.
The Regents delegate authority in academic matters to the Academic Senate, which determines academic policy for the University as a whole. The Senate, composed of faculty members and certain administrative officers, determines the conditions for admission and granting of degrees, authorizes and supervises courses and curricula, and advises University administrators on budgets and faculty appointments and promotions. Individual divisions of the Universitywide Academic Senate determine academic policy for each campus. Students participate in policy-making at both campuswide and systemwide levels.
A Brief History of UCLA
With only 11,000 inhabitants in 1880, the pueblo of Los Angeles convinced the state government to establish a State Normal School in Southern California. Enthusiastic citizens contributed between $2 and $500 to purchase a site, and on August 29, 1882, the Los Angeles Branch of the State Normal School welcomed its first students in a Victorian building that had been erected on the site of an orange grove.
By 1914 Los Angeles had grown to a city of 350,000, and the school moved to new quarters—a Hollywood ranch off a dirt road that later became Vermont Avenue. In 1919, the school became the Southern Branch of the University of California and offered two years of instruction in Letters and Science. Third- and fourth-year courses were soon added; the first class of 300 students was graduated in 1925, and by 1927 the Southern Branch had earned its new name: University of California at Los Angeles. (The name was changed again in 1958 to University of California, Los Angeles.)
Continued growth mandated the selection of a site that could support a larger campus, and in 1927, ground was broken in the chaparral-covered hills of Westwood. The four original buildings—Royce Hall, Powell Library, Haines Hall, and Kinsey Hall—formed a lonesome cluster in the middle of 400 empty acres. The campus hosted some 5,500 students its first term in 1929. The Regents established the master’s degree at UCLA in 1933 and, three years later, the doctorate. UCLA was fast becoming a full-fledged university offering advanced study in almost every field.
The most spectacular growth at UCLA occurred in the 25 years following World War II, when it tripled its prewar enrollment of 9,000 students and undertook what would become a $260 million building program that included residence halls, parking structures, laboratories, more classrooms, service buildings, athletic and recreational facilities, and a 715-bed teaching hospital that is now one of the largest and most highly respected in the world.