General Talking Points

• The University of California is the world’s largest academic research system, conducting approximately one-tenth of all academic research in the U.S. UC research helped create the biotechnology industry and led to breakthroughs in many other fields, including the electronics, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, nanotechnology and special-effects film industries.
• UC’s more than 54,000 graduate and professional students are a driving force behind the research, innovation and solutions that keep California on the leading edge. Graduate students also serve as teachers and mentors to more than 210,000 undergraduate students.
• Sixty-one faculty and researchers affiliated with UC have won 62 Noble Prizes in the areas of chemistry, physics, economics, and physiology and medicine.
• UCLA, and the entire UC system, supports robust and sustained federal investments in research, which are critical to our health, economic prosperity, and international competitiveness.
• Through its partnership with the federal government, UCLA is an economic engine for California and the nation – helping to create new knowledge, technologies, cures, jobs, startup companies and spinoff industries.
• UCLA researchers tackle the nation’s biggest scientific and technological challenges and create solutions to some of our most complex problems.
• Researchers at UCLA identify diseases, develop cures and life-enhancing biotechnologies, and discover and develop materials and products for energy, industrial and national security. We are committed to research excellence across all disciplines from health and humanities to computing and engineering, agriculture, the oceans and the environment.

Economic Benefits

• Continued investment in UC’s research enterprise stimulates the economy by bringing new patented technologies to market and creating jobs, companies, and industries.
• For example, the first INTERNET message was sent from a computer at UCLA.
• Almost all the industries in which California leads the world – agriculture, biotechnology, telecommunications, digital media, computers and semi-conductors, and environmental technologies – grew out of university-based research.
• Nearly 1,000 startups have been formed on UC patents since 1980, supporting over 20,000 jobs with over $11 billion in venture funding and bring in $14 billion in annual revenue. UC’s research partnership with the federal government is vital to these successes.
• UC graduate students create almost 600 new inventions a year – creating and growing much of California’s biotechnology and computer industries, developing research breakthroughs that have led to major medical advances, shaping ideas about our world and culture, and creating the economic and social infrastructure of our communities.
• More than 300 startup companies have been launched by UC graduate students or emerged directly from their discoveries

Federal Investment in UC Research

• Federal funds are the university’s SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SOURCE of support for research, accounting for more than 50% of the total research funding and having an immediate effect on UCLA’s ability to support graduate students and post-doctoral scholars.
• We advocate for the highest level of federal funding to ensure UCLA’s research enterprise remains a source of scientific and technological solutions and can continue as an engine for economic growth and innovation.
• Combined, the UC campuses represent the federal government’s largest university research partner. Of the $4.93 billion in research awards received by UC investigators in Fiscal Year 2016, nearly $2.9 billion was from federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Departments of Defense, Energy, Agriculture, State and Commerce, as well as NASA and other agencies.
• Additionally, UC receives funding for its role in managing three Department of Energy national laboratories: Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos.

Federal Financial Aid at UC

• UC students receive approximately $1.6 billion in federal aid, including Pell Grants, other grants and fellowships, work-study and student loans.
• Federal Work-Study (FWS), a partnership between the federal government and UC campuses, provided more than 13,000 UC students with approximately $26 million in FWS funds in AY 2015-16.
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) offer additional funding for low-income students beyond what Pell Grants provide, and are accessible to students with the highest financial need. In AY 2015-16, more than 15,000 UC students received approximately $11.8 million in SEOG.
• Year-round Pell Grants, which were reinstated starting in the 2017-18 academic year, allow low-income students to accelerate their time to degree completion, while potentially reducing their overall educational costs. In 2011, when year-round Pell Grants were last available, more than 13,500 UC students received over $18 million in additional aid to cover their summer session.
• With aid from the federal government, combined with California state grants for students and UC’s institutional aid, 57 percent of UC’s California undergraduates have their tuition covered.

Federal Investment in UC Yield Results

• The University of California educates more low-income and first-generation college students than any other top caliber research university.
• UC Pell Grant recipients have comparable graduation rates to non-Pell Grant recipients, within five years of graduation, and the majority of these students go on to earn more than their families.
• 47 percent of UC graduates complete their undergraduate education with no loan debt; of those who do borrow, the average loan debt is $20,900, compared with $30,100 nationally.
• UC serves as a catalyst for economic mobility—within two to 10 years of graduation, the average freshman undergraduate student sees their earnings double.

Federal Support Helps UC Student Success

• UC students, particularly those from underserved communities, benefit from federal outreach programs such as TRIO and GEAR UP that help prepare them for college and assist them with the transition from high school to university. These programs aim to encourage youth from disadvantaged backgrounds who graduate high school to pursue higher education.
• Through the Teacher Quality Partnerships competitive grant program, and its own teacher preparation programs, UC increases the number and improves the preparation of high- quality K-12 teachers, and contributes professional development and educational resources for educators across California.
• The Institute of Education Science (IES) provides valuable resources to stakeholders across the education continuum, including evaluation of implemented federal policies from pre-K through post-graduate study, and serves as a nonpartisan evaluator of program success. In federal Fiscal Year 2016, UC researchers successfully competed for more than $8 million in IES funds.

*Additional talking points on specific policy issues will be provided upon request by emailing advocacy@support.ucla.edu.