The University of California was founded in 1868 as a public, state-supported land-grant institution. It was written into the State Constitution of 1879 as a public trust, to be administered by an independent governing board - the Regents of the University of California. The Board of Regents includes 28 members: seven ex officio, 20 appointed by the Governor with the approval of the Senate for staggered terms, and one student appointed by the Board.

The 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education designates the University of California as the primary state-supported academic agency for research, with exclusive jurisdiction in public higher education over instruction in law, medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine. Sole authority is also vested in the University to award doctoral degrees in all fields, with the exception of the doctorate in Education that may be awarded by the California State University. Joint doctoral degrees may also be awarded with the California State University. The University is headed by a President who is responsible for overall policy development, planning, and resource allocations. Chancellors are responsible for the management of individual campuses. The Regents have delegated authority to the Academic Senate to determine conditions for admission, degree requirements, and approval of courses and curricula. Special faculty committees serve in an advisory capacity to the Regents, the President, and the Chancellors in a variety of matters.

There are ten campuses: Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. Each campus offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, with the San Francisco campus devoted exclusively to the health sciences. The University operates five teaching hospitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and Orange counties. Approximately 150 University institutes, centers, bureaus, and research laboratories operate in all parts of the state. The University also provides oversight of one Department of Energy Laboratory and is in partnerships with private industry to manage two additional Department of Energy Laboratories.

The University of California conducts higher education programs in four major areas:

• Instruction of qualified individuals through offering lower division, upper division, graduate, professional, and postdoctoral degree programs on each of its general campuses.
• Research directed toward advancing the understanding of arts and sciences and the interpretation of human history.
• Education for professional careers.
• Public service contributing to the fulfillment of the University's obligation to disseminate knowledge.

Because department programs drive the need for infrastructure investment, each department has a related capital outlay program to support this need. For the specifics on the University of California's Capital Outlay Program see "Infrastructure Overview."