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slapntickle · Joined: 07 Sep 2010 Posts: 270

The University of California System is frequently lauded as one of the best public-education systems in the world.

But a scathing new state audit of the system tells a story of manipulation of admissions standards for financial gain, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The audit claims that the university knowingly admitted out-of-state-applicants with lower qualifications in an effort to boost income from increased tuition.

"This report concludes that over the past several years, the university has undermined its commitment to resident students," the audit reads. "The university made substantial efforts to enroll nonresident students who pay significantly more tuition than residents."

In-state applicants pay $13,400 a year for tuition versus the $38,108 out-of-state applicants must pay.

The audit asserts that, from the 2010-11 school year through the 2014-15 school year, out-of-state enrollment increased a whopping 82%, while in-state enrollment decreased 1%.

It also claims that "the university admitted nearly 16,000 nonresidents whose scores fell below the median scores for admitted residents at the same campus on every academic test score and grade point average that we evaluated."

UC Berkeley
Flickr/John Morgan
UC Berkeley.

The University of California — led by Janet Napolitano, its president and a former US secretary of Homeland Security — fiercely disputes the findings of the audit.

"Unfortunately, the draft report that has been shared with us makes inferences and draws conclusions that are supported neither by the data nor by sound analysis," a statement released online read.

It released its own report after being provided a draft of the audit that tells a vastly different story about its admissions process.

The university's report says that the number of out-of-state enrolled students has no bearing on the amount of in-state students the university can accept. It also states that its policies "overwhelmingly favor" California-resident applicants.

Still, California residents have reacted to the audit's findings with outrage.

"This is horrific," Rohini Ashok, a California parent whose son was rejected from his three UC schools, told The San Jose Mercury News. "Someone has to go in there and figure out who is responsible."

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160402140827924

Noelle · Joined: 26 Mar 2005 Posts: 361 Location: USA

Interesting to find this now.

I work at the UC San Diego campus in their language program, which also employs a number of UC students to be part of a fluency development course for int'l students we teach. Nearly all of these students I've met over the years (since 2010) are actually from CA.

However, I did hear that many local students (state residents) applying to a specific UC location often receive acceptance letters, but not for the location of their choice. The way I understand it now-- they are accepted into the UC system, but may end up somewhere they didn't actually apply, such as the campuses with lesser popularity (UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Davis etc...)

I'm kind of on the fence about the whole thing. I don't work on main campus, but still receive academic adjunct faculty privileges and health insurance through Univ. of California. I definitely think the entire network is one big for profit scheme. But it's still a pretty big deal for students to study at UC and having them on my resume, even though I'm not technically faculty, has opened many doors.

I do believe that Napolitano has put her foot in it though. This university (and I mean UCSD) very obviously seems to prefer out of state and international students-- they claim for the purposes of diversity-- but I also believe it is about the out of state and international tuition.

Budda · Joined: 13 Nov 2015 Posts: 8

Noelle · Joined: 26 Mar 2005 Posts: 361 Location: USA

Since writing this, I've taken a faculty position at UCSD and joined a teacher's union.

The report is true. UCSD, along with UC Irvine and UC Davis are the top 3 campuses turning down local students in favor of out of state/int'l students with lower qualifications. I was horrified:(

However, UCSD does have a program for local students admitted from under serviced high schools who are unable to afford housing. They basically allow these students to live on the campus for free, or at a drastically reduced fee.

I am very conflicted about UC at the moment. On one hand, I am very proud to be employed by them. Recently the Chinese gov't announced that it would lash out at UCSD for their decision to bring the Dalai Lama to speak at 2016 commencement. There is a concern now that the school could see a massive drop in student numbers, as Chinese international students make up a huge portion of the student body and bring more $$$ into the university than any other demographic. Still, it appears the university is standing their ground.

On the other hand, I am so disgusted by this report of qualified students from California being rejected, and by the revelation that the university senate is made up of businessmen/women, not educators.