A modern public university.

A s information technology fuels the expansion of knowledge at an ever-accelerating pace, universities everywhere are confronting the question of how a successful university should be structured in the 21st century. In the past decade, changes have swept European university systems from Britain through Switzerland to Germany. In the United States, publicly funded universities are facing a growing gap in trying to remain at the forefront of higher education and research while competing with private universities with wealthy endowments. My own institution, the University of California Berkeley (Fig. 1), widely regarded as one of the world’s leading public universities, must consider how to maintain and enhance its success as a pre-eminent academic leader while still retaining its distinct public mission and character. Th is is our challenge for the 21st century. American public universities have as their primary mission to provide excellent educational opportunities to the entire population and to serve the public good. Public universities are pivotal in realizing society’s potential for opportunity, social justice and prosperity — extending the public good for the benefi t of all people. Berkeley is the oldest in a state-funded University of California (UC) system that is considered the best in the nation, consisting of ten campuses across the state. As the fl agship of the UC system, in a state that is now the seventh-ranking economy in the world, Berkeley plays a special role in higher education within California and the US. For many decades, Berkeley has excelled at teaching and research. Students are taught by some of the world’s fi nest faculty, including, at the present time, seven Nobel laureates. Young faculty are chosen for their potential to make profound advances in their disciplines. Th ere is nothing more exciting than studying with a faculty member who makes a discovery that changes the paradigm in his or her fi eld and then brings it to the classroom the next day. By agreement with the state, 90% of Berkeley’s 24,000 undergraduates are residents of California, and they are typically among the top 4% of graduating high-school seniors. Th e profi le of the Berkeley student body refl ects an unusual meritocracy, with admission granted on a comprehensive basis, not by test scores alone. One-third of Berkeley’s undergraduates come from impoverished families, are the fi rst in their families to attend college, and are funded generously by needs-based scholarships and government grants. Th is is a signifi cantly larger number of such students than those in America’s elite private universities. Berkeley undergraduates not only receive an excellent education, but more of them go on to receive PhDs than those of any other university in the US. In educating a The increasing complexity of teaching and research poses signifi cant challenges for public universities. The University of California, Berkeley, might provide a successful model for the 21st century.