Founded in 1965, the University of California, Irvine combines the strengths of a major research university with the bounty of an incomparable Southern California location. With a commitment to cutting-edge research, teaching, learning and creativity, UCI is a driving force for innovation and discovery that benefits local, national and global communities in many ways.
With more than 27,000 students, nearly 2,000 faculty members and 8,900 staff, UCI is among the fastest-growing campuses in the University of California system. Increasingly a first-choice campus for students, UCI ranks among the top U.S. universities in the number of undergraduate applications and continues to admit freshmen with highly competitive academic profiles. Orange County’s third-largest employer, UCI generates an annual economic impact on the county of $3.6 billion.
UCI is a center for quality education that fosters the passionate and enthusiastic expansion of knowledge. Graduates are equipped with the tools of analysis, expression and cultural understanding necessary for leadership in today’s world.
UCI is a center for quality education that fosters the passionate and enthusiastic expansion of knowledge. Graduates are equipped with the tools of analysis, expression and cultural understanding necessary for leadership in today’s world.
UCI is consistently ranked among the nation’s best universities – public and private – with achievements in a broad range of fields that have garnered high national rankings for many schools, departments and programs. Three UCI researchers have won Nobel Prizes – two in chemistry and one in physics.
The university is noted for its excellent research and graduate programs, an extensive commitment to undergraduate education, and a growing number of professional schools and programs of academic importance and social significance. Recent additions include public health, pharmaceutical sciences and nursing science programs, as well as a new School of Law scheduled to open in 2009.
UCI reaches beyond its classrooms and laboratories to address societal issues and support human development. UC Irvine Medical Center, Orange County’s only university hospital, is building a new world-class facility that, when completed in 2009, will house the latest technologies and strengthen UCI’s ability to provide specialized medical and surgical treatments to the region’s citizens.
A major intellectual and cultural center, UCI engages the community through many public activities and events. Renowned individuals speaking on campus include Nobel Peace Prize winners, such as former President Jimmy Carter, His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Kenyan environmental advocate Wangari Maathai.
In 2006-07, the university invested $230 million in capital construction projects, with additional upgrades under way or in the planning stages. Extramural funding – money coming from outside sources, including federal and state agencies, industry contracts and private foundations in support of UCI research – totaled $276 million in 2006-07.
Underscoring strong community support, private giving to UCI topped $120 million in 2006-07. With an endowment valued at $234 million as of June 30, 2007, the University of California, Irvine Foundation spearheads private fundraising efforts for the campus and, with the assistance of alumni and community leaders, helps ensure UCI’s future as a world-class research university.
UCI benefits the community and the world in countless ways through its scholarly, scientific, creative and economic contributions. UCI now has embarked on a strategic plan that will ensure the campus continues to inspire excellence as it fulfills its research, teaching and public service mission in the decades ahead.
