The California Master Plan for Higher Education of 1960 was developed by Clark Kerr, during the administration of Gov. Pat Brown. It set up a coherent system for postsecondary education which defined specific roles for the already-existing University of California (UC), the California State University (CSU), and the California Community Colleges. Clark Kerr (May 17, 1911 – December 1, 2003) was the first Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (1952–1958) and the 12th President of the University of California (1958–1967). ... Edmund Gerald Brown Sr. ... The University of California (UC) is a public university system within the State of California. ... The California State University (CSU) is one of three public higher education systems in the state of California. ...

At the time, the state's legislators and academic administrators foresaw an approaching surge in University enrollment, due to the Baby Boom (people born after 1945) coming of age, and that they needed a plan to be able to maintain educational quality in the face of growing demand. The underlying principle was that some form of higher education ought to be available to everyone, regardless of their economic means; that only a person's academic proficiency should determine how far they can go. Clark Kerr stated that his goal was to balance the competing demands of fostering excellence and guaranteeing educational access for all. A baby boom is any period of greatly increased birth rate within temporal and usually geographical bounds. ...

Hence, the Plan laid out that the top 12.5% (1/8^th) of graduating high school seniors would be guaranteed a place at one of the University of California campuses (Berkeley, Los Angeles, etc.); the top third would be able to enter the California State University (San Francisco State, Cal State L.A., etc.); and that the community colleges would accept all applications. Previously the UC's admissions standards allowed the top 15% of the state to enroll, and the CSU would accept the top half.

In addition, graduates of the community colleges would be able to transfer to the Cal State or UC systems in order to complete Bachelor's degrees, being accepted as third-year students at the Universities by virtue of their community college coursework. (This last item was already prevailing before the Plan's adoption.) The Plan established that the University of California would be the sole part of the system charged with performing academic research, and able to award Master's and Doctoral degrees; the Cal State system would be able to award joint doctorates with the UC. The Plan recognized that research and Doctoral education are expensive, and for that reason restricted them to the UC system. Research is an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry in order to discover, interpret and/or revise facts. ...

The Regents of the UC and CSU approved the Plan in 1959, and the California Legislature adopted it in 1960 in special session. Periodic reviews by the Legislature occur, occaisonally adopting modifications.

The effect of the plan was to increase overall efficiency in the higher education system, to produce greater numbers of graduates at a lower per-student cost, by removing redundancies (thanks to clearly specifying the missions of each system segment, clarifying what the "territory" of each is). In addition, it established a "rational" planning process for the growth of the university systems, setting aside a past practice in which the Legislature would introduce bills establishing new four-year universities in a member's home district, a kind of political pork. Pork barrel, in a literal sense, is a barrel in which pork is kept, but figuratively is a supply of money; often the source of ones livelihood. ...

The Plan was the basis for a great surge in development in California higher education. Today, many credit the California universities for the place California holds in the world economy and its own economic makeup, with great investment in high technology (Silicon Valley, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals). These and other sectors are the backbone of the "knowledge worker" (see Peter Drucker) economy, which needs an educated workforce to exist. The plan is one of the reasons why the University of California system is perceived as being more selective, and more prestigious, than the California State University. A view of downtown San Jose, the self-proclaimed Capital of Silicon Valley. Like many large cities, San Joses downtown is expansive and encompasses much more area than shown in this view. ... Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon is drug, and logos is science) is the study of how chemical substances interfere with living systems. ... Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was a management theorist who created many phrases common in business today. ... The University of California (UC) is a public university system within the State of California. ... The California State University (CSU) is one of three public higher education systems in the state of California. ...

The passage of Proposition 13 is blamed by many for depriving the State of revenue needed to continue investment in higher education, as well as other infrastructure. Proposition 13 was a ballot initiative enacted by the voters of the state of California on June 6, 1978. ...

Internal Links

California State University
University of California The California State University (CSU) is one of three public higher education systems in the state of California. ... The University of California (UC) is a public university system within the State of California. ...

External Links

The Future of Flagship Universities, by Robert Berdahl, former Chancellor, UC Berkeley Clark Kerr's Legacy: 1960 Master Plan Transformed Higher Education, UC Berkeley public relations office