(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that community college students who wish to earn the baccalaureate degree at the University of California (UC) are provided with clear and effective directions that specify curricular paths to this degree.

(b) This section shall not be construed to limit in any way the ability of students to gain admission through alternative paths to transfer, such as the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) or any other means.

(c) The University of California is requested to address deficiencies in the articulation of major preparation courses between the California Community Colleges and the various UC campuses to make it easier for prospective transfer students to identify which community college courses meet major preparation requirements across the various campuses of the university.

(d) The University of California is requested to identify commonalities and differences in similar majors across all UC campuses in order to accomplish all of the following:

(1) To provide students with general descriptions of each major.

(2) To identify lower division degree requirements that are common across UC campuses.

(3) To identify additional academic requirements at each UC campus.

(4) To describe additional criteria that students must achieve to be admitted at the various UC campuses.

(e) (1) When four or more UC campuses that award undergraduate degrees have articulated specific courses and course sequences of the California Community Colleges for common requirements in similar majors, the remaining UC campuses that offer undergraduate degrees are requested to also articulate these specific community college courses and course sequences. The Legislature recognizes that UC may adopt provisions allowing individual UC campuses to opt out of this articulation process on a case-by-case basis; however, these provisions should be infrequently used. The Academic Senate of the University of California is requested to notify the California Community Colleges when an articulation request is denied, and to provide information that will enable the California Community Colleges to achieve course comparability with UC.

(2) For at least the 20 most high-demand undergraduate majors, and with the ultimate goal of including all majors for which it is feasible, UC is requested to specify lower division transfer paths clearly identifying commonalities, as well as differences, on a comparative basis across UC campuses offering specific major programs. The Academic Senate of the University of California is requested to review the existing differences in lower division major preparation in each major across UC campuses, recognizing that one goal of these requirements should be to achieve similarity to the greatest degree that is academically appropriate.

(3) The University of California is requested to include all of the following in the systemwide lower division transfer paths for the high-demand baccalaureate major degree programs:

(A) Lower division general education requirements for the university.

(B) Lower division major preparation requirements that are common across undergraduate campuses.

(C) Additional lower division degree requirements that are unique to an individual campus.

(D) Elective units, as appropriate.

(E) Additional criteria, such as grade point averages and minimum grades, to ensure that students are competitive in selective majors.

(4) The systemwide lower division transfer paths shall be specified in sufficient manner and detail so that existing and future community college lower division courses may be articulated, according to the usual procedures, to the corresponding UC courses or course descriptions.

(f) (1) The University of California is requested to, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall, in consultation with the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges, on or before January 1, 2008, facilitate the articulation of those lower division, baccalaureate-level courses at each campus of the California Community Colleges that meet the lower division transfer path requirements for each major specified by UC in paragraph (1) of subdivision (e).

(2) The University of California is requested to annually review, and update as appropriate, the lower division transfer paths and articulation to ensure that they reflect current UC campus degree requirements and community college curricula, and share the results of that review with the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges.

(g) As allowed by enrollment demand and available space, UC is requested to develop transfer admission agreement programs for students at each campus of the California Community Colleges who demonstrate the intent to meet the requirements of this section, including the declaration of a major and identification of a choice of a destination campus. The transfer admission agreement shall guarantee admission to the campus and major identified in the agreement and transfer of all units specified in the agreement, subject to the student’s successful completion of the requirements of the agreement. It is the intent of the Legislature that the transfer admission agreements entered into under this section be made available to students early in their academic coursework. However, nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude or limit the development or issuance of transfer admission agreements for students at any appropriate time up to the point of application.

(h) A path to transfer, as specified in this section, shall be available to any community college student who desires to transfer to UC, and shall not be limited to students who secure a transfer admission agreement as specified in subdivision (g). A student who successfully completes a path to transfer, but who does not secure a transfer admission agreement, shall be guaranteed the transferability and degree applicability for all units that the student has earned pursuant to the path to transfer. However, nothing in this section shall be construed to guarantee admission to UC, or to a specific UC campus, for a student who has not secured a transfer admission agreement.

(i) The University of California is requested to, and the California Community Colleges shall, on a three-year periodic cycle, jointly conduct a review of a random representative sample of transcripts of students who have transferred to UC and of students preparing for transfer to determine the effectiveness of the transfer preparation pathways referenced in this section.

(Added by Stats. 2006, Ch. 804, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2007.)