The University of California Board of Regents approved an 18 percent cap of nonresident enrollment across the UCs on Thursday, according to a press release from the UC Office of the President.
“True to the university’s mission, our nonresident enrollment policy underscores our unwavering commitment to the students of the state … it also reaffirms our pledge that nonresident students will be enrolled only in addition to, and never in place of, Californians,” UC President Janet Napolitano said in a statement.
The cap was first discussed by the Regents in March, when it was proposed to cap nonresident enrollment at 20 percent across all campuses.
Four campuses including Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego currently surpass this enrollment cap and are capped at their current percentage of nonresident enrollment under the new policy.
UC Berkeley has the highest number of nonresident students, making up 22.4 percent of the student body.
According to the press release, this cap is in response to the state’s Budget Act of 2016. The act requested that the Regents limit the number of undergraduate nonresidents in return for $18.5 million to support the enrollment of 2,500 more California undergraduates.
“Our new nonresident enrollment policy strikes the right balance between UC’s continued commitment to putting California students first and the significant benefits that out-of-state and international students provide the university,” Napolitano said in a statement.
The policy also calls for the Regents to review the cap every four years.
The UC system is on track to enroll 2,500 more undergraduates in the fall of 2017, following a dramatic jump of 7,500 new undergraduates enrolled in fall 2016. At UC Santa Barbara, 1,000 more undergraduates enrolled this fall than in 2015.
Nonresidents make up 12.2 percent of the undergraduate population at UCSB, just a few percentage points short of the campus’s 15 percent cap.
UCSB Director of Admissions Lisa Przekop told the Nexus in March that the campus will not be nearing the 20 percent mark “anytime soon.”
