The University of California is financed through taxes allotted to it by the Legislature in Sacramento. This money finances 10 very different campuses. Berkeley is the oldest, founded in 1866, and Merced the newest, opened in 2005. While the rationale or need for so many campuses is a contested and interesting issue, it is also interesting to reflect on how these differences may impact on the student experience.

During a recent trip to UC Irvine I witnessed how profound the physical differences are. While Berkeley feels like ‘spontaneous order’ (to borrow Hayek’s phrase), Irvine is carefully planned. Berkeley is full of wrinkles: decades of iteration of regulation, work and the market have visibly contributed to a vibrant campus, which is also sometimes dilapidated and unfair, with some departments, students and Berkeley residents clearly having more than others. At Irvine, on the other hand, the newness of most buildings irons out these wrinkles. Founded in 1965, and located in affluent Orange County (as Berkeley is in affluent Bay Area), Irvine can boast excellent student living and studying facilities, on a par with what may be expected in a new, 3 or 4 star hotel.

Leaving aside academic considerations, how do these physical differences affect the student experience? One would expect that students at a campus like Berkeley benefit from exposure to an environment with more socio-economic diversity as they learn to live and work with people from a wider variety of backgrounds. At Irvine, one would expect that students benefit from the resources available to them as they can concentrate on their studies. One would also expect each campus to attract different students, under the old assumption that wealth attracts more wealth.

However, in so far as race is a proxy for wealth (a broadly valid assumption even if careful analysis would require qualifying this considerably), Irvine and Berkeley appear to attract a similar body of students. That is, in both campuses certain minorities are under-represented with respect to the California population, but no campus is ‘whiter’ than the other. Both in Berkeley and Irvine, Blacks and especially Chicano/Latinos are ‘under’ represented with respect to the California population (Blacks are 3% of the student body at each campus but 6% of the California population; Chicano/Latinos are about 12% of the student body at each campus but 33% of the CA population. Student numbers from UCOP and population numbers from 2000 census).

The contrasts and similarities across the UC system provide an excellent opportunity for comparative research into higher education policy. How should funds be allocated and invested? What effects on student performance and development do different types of campuses have? Do some students do better in one setting or another? Do different campuses attract some students more than others, and why? Given the wealth and excellence of the UC system, and their goal of increasing student diversity and keeping enrollment numbers up, these are interesting questions to research.