California’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education articulated California’s three public higher education segments, tuition-free education, and a pathway into higher education for anyone with the ability to benefit. However, in today’s more diverse California and predominantly knowledge-based economy, that Master Plan increasingly reinforces inequities between Californians, acting less as a pathway to opportunity and more as a barrier.
This report envisions a radical paradigm shift for the Master Plan, including a new way to better everage higher education as a tool for social and economic mobility. Specifically, it emphasizes the principles of ensuring equitable access and support for all students, streamlining processes to minimize barriers for students, enabling affordable enrollment without excessive debt, aligning programs with career opportunities and personal development, and creating a system that can successfully evolve with changing student needs and societal demands.
Lastly, the proposed plan establishes a single California University system that merges UC, CSU, and CCC into a unified network of regional campuses, each of which offers a full range of educational opportunities from certificates to doctorates.