A new report recommends a radical overhaul of California’s public higher education systems, EdSource reported.
The University of California, California State University and California Community College systems should merge, according to the report by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and California Competes, a research and advocacy organization focused on California higher ed and workforce development.
The report’s author, California Competes CEO Su Jin Jez, argues that the state’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which outlines the roles of the three systems, is outdated and fails to meet the needs of today’s students. Under the original plan, the UC system was intended to focus on conducting research and educating the top eighth of high school graduates, while the CSU system focused on undergraduate education for the top third of high school students and the community colleges embraced an “open-access” mission.
But the lines between their roles have blurred, their coordination with each other has “weakened” and students have grown more diverse, “necessitating a higher education system that is more adaptable, equitable, and student-centered,” the report reads. It proposes the three systems become a single California University system, “a unified network of regional campuses” that all provide the full range of academic offerings, from certificates to doctorates. Each region of the state would have a California University campus with multiple sites.
“This new configuration eliminates transfer issues, reduces competition for resources, and provides seamless pathways for students through college and into careers,” according to the report.
Patricia Gándara and Gary Orfield, co-directors of the Civil Rights Project, acknowledge in the report’s forward that this new plan would be hard to pull off and would require a substantial increase in state funding. But it’s intended to jump-start a needed discussion, they say.
“Obviously, any changes to a system so large and complex face huge challenges, but there is growing agreement that change is urgently needed if the state is to sustain its economic edge and successfully educate its changing population,” they write.
