In the arts, sciences, and engineering, many of its departments are considered among the best in the nation by such measures as output of significant scholarly papers and peer opinion. So, too, is UCSB as a whole. Already ranked as a category 1 research university by the Carnegie Commission, UCSB is an elected member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, joining such elite institutions as Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. At UCSB, living and learning are deeply intertwined. Extraordinarily rich in people and programs, the campus remains small enough for students to enjoy an intensely personal educational experience.
Bicycles are the preferred mode of transportation.
Once a small independent teachers' college, UC Santa Barbara is today an integral part of the nine-campus University of California system. Chartered in 1868 as a land-grant college, the university is now widely regarded as the nation's preeminent public system of higher education. The university has nearly 7,500 full-time faculty members and some 165,000 students, more than 90 percent of them Californians. About a fourth of UC students are studying at the graduate or professional level. Responsibility for governing the system is vested in a corporate board of 26 gubernatorially appointed and elected members known as The Regents of the University of California.