The University of California, Merced (UC Merced or colloquially, UCM) is a public land-grant research university in Merced, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California (UC) system. Established in 2005, UC Merced is the newest campus within the UC system. The primary campus is located around five miles north of Merced and sits adjacent to Lake Yosemite. The main campus is around 1,026 acres (415 ha) in size. Large swaths of protected natural grasslands surround the university.

The forming of UC Merced was initiated to address population growth of the San Joaquin Valley, and to make higher education more accessible. UC Merced consists of three undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. The upcoming medical school is being established in partnership with UCSF and their satellite campus, UCSF Fresno in order to address the lack of healthcare services available in the San Joaquin Valley. The first medical building, which is set to open in 2026, will be the home for the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) PRIME+ program, a program that combines four years of undergraduate work with four years of medical school. UC Merced offers over 60 undergraduate degrees and 18 graduate and professional degrees and roughly 8,000 undergraduates and 700 graduate students were enrolled at UCM as of fall 2023. The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and had $45.9 million in research and development expenditures in 2021.

UC Merced is one of the largest employers in Merced County and contributes about $1.7 billion to the economy of the San Joaquin Valley. The UC Merced Golden Bobcats currently compete in the NAIA as members of the Cal Pac. In 2025, the university plans to move to NCAA Division II.

On May 19, 1988, the UC Regents voted to begin planning for a campus in the region in response to increasing enrollment and growth constraints at existing UC campuses. In 1989, they authorized UC President David P. Gardner to plan up to three new campuses to address these needs. The search quickly was narrowed to California's Central Valley, which was the state's largest and most populous region without its own UC campus. Soon over 100 offers from across the state were submitted to try and bring the new campus to their community including Fresno, Los Banos, Madera, Manteca, Merced. Redding, Turlock, and Tuolumne County. In 1992 the UC board of regents selected three finalist for the new campus Fresno, Madera, and Merced; but officials delayed any movement forward until early 1993 due to budget concerns. Members of the state legislature had pushed back at the expense of the campus including state senator John Burton calling the campus the "biggest boondoggle ever". Another delay on the site selection occurred when environmental impact reports for Madera and Merced had to be reevaluated to address concerns raised by that they had been done incorrectly. On May 19, 1995, the Regents selected Merced over the two other finalist sites in Madera and Fresno. Lake Yosemite is situated very close to the general campus area, and would provide a unique scenic backdrop for the university. A lake bring situated near the campus would be a differentiation factor for the Merced campus when compared to the other ten University of California campuses.

An important hurdle to the construction of UC Merced was removed with the passage of Proposition 203 (Public Education Facilities Bond Act) in March 1996. The Act allows the issuance of bonds to fund the construction of new buildings for school facilities. An additional $55 million in funding for the campus was secured by state assembly member Dennis Cardoza to ensure that the other nine University of California campuses would not have their budgets affected. In 1999 the UC Regents selected Carol Tomlinson-Keasey as the first chancellor of the university where she became an effective lobbyists for additional state funding.

As part of the package for the Merced site the Virginia Smith Estate provided 7,098 acres (2,872 ha) of land for the new campus. The university originally planned to conserve 5,030 acres (2,040 ha) to protect sensitive vernal pool habitats but later expanded it to 6,428 acres (2,601 ha) with the creation of the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve which is now part of the University of California Natural Reserve System. A public golf course known as the Merced Hills Golf Course had been constructed at the site in the 1996. This course was shut down to make way for the new campus when the original site for the campus was made unavailable due to the discovery of fairy shrimp – an endangered species – on the originally proposed site. Since the construction of the golf course had negated concerns about wetland and vernal pool environmental issues, building the campus at this location was easier than fighting to save the original construction site.

In 1997 UC Merced had created an office at Merced College, and in 1999 built a temporary office facility at the nearby decommissioned Castle Airforce Base. UC Merced established a satellite campus in Bakersfield, California in 2001 in its downtown University Square. The satellite campus extended a UC education to prospective college-bound students of Kern County and the southern San Joaquin Valley before UC Merced opened its official campus in Merced. Classes and counseling were also provided at the Bakersfield center to newly admitted UC students. In 2011, the Bakersfield campus was permanently closed citing cost-cutting efforts and for the university to balance its finances.

The campus groundbreaking ceremony was held October 25, 2002, and the first day of undergraduate classes was September 6, 2005 with 706 freshmen, 132 transfer students, and 37 graduate students. First Lady Michelle Obama gave the commencement address for the university's first full graduating class. The campaign to bring Michelle Obama to campus was started by the students of the graduating class where they wrote over 900 cards asking her to come. The commencement was the First Lady's first commencement speaker event.

With the start of the great recession between 2007 and 2009 the University of California was hit with budget cuts by the state. During this time Andrew Scull and 22 other faculty members from UC San Diego authored a letter calling for UC Merced, UC Riverside, and UC Santa Cruz to be closed as a way to save money. Their reasoning was that these institutions were "in substantial measure teaching institutions". In response to this UC President Mark Yudoff wrote a letter to the leaders of all ten campuses to insure them that there would be no campus closures.

In 2010, the United States Census Bureau made UC Merced its own separate census-designated place. Later the same year, the new student housing facilities, The Summits, opened to provide two additional residential halls for incoming students. The two four-story buildings, Tenaya Hall and Cathedral Hall, are reserved primarily for incoming freshmen students. Three years later, another housing facility, Half Dome, was built next to the existing Tenaya and Cathedral Halls. Half Dome houses both freshman and continuing students. The university is a census-designated place (CDP) that is uninhabited as of both the 2010 and 2020 census. In addition to lacking population the university covers all of its land in this census-designated place.

In January 2015, UC Merced was nationally classified with the Carnegie Classification for community engagement, along with UC Davis and UCLA. Later that year the University of California started the push to expand the campus capacity to 10,000 students and double its square footage as part of Project 2020. The expansion would be the largest growth in both buildings and students on campus to date, and includes dorms, offices, classrooms and recreation areas.

On November 4, 2015, 18-year-old student Faisal Mohammad stabbed and injured four people with a hunting knife before being shot to death by a campus police officer.

In November 2015, the Regents of the University of California approved a $1.14 billion proposal, known as the 2020 Plan, to double the capacity of UC Merced, boosting its enrollment by nearly 4,000 students. The new buildings were completed in early 2021. In April 2019, the school's student government, the Associated Students of UC Merced, cut off funding for UC Merced's only student-run newspaper, The Prodigy.

UC Merced claims to be the only institution in the United States all of whose buildings have been LEED certified. Its Triple Net Zero Commitment is expected to create zero net landfill waste and zero net greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020.

UC Merced announced a partnership with UCSF and UCSF Fresno to create a new medical school program by the year 2026, with support from governor Gavin Newsom. The SJV Prime Program which opened its doors in 2011, is part of the upcoming UC Merced School of Medicine. It is specifically focused on preparing and training students to become future doctors who will serve the underserved communities in the Central Valley of California. The SJV Prime program at UC Merced is a unique initiative designed to address the healthcare needs of the area, a region in California that faces significant health disparities due to its socio-economic challenges, high levels of poverty, and a shortage of healthcare professionals. UC Merced's School of Medicine also collaborates with UC San Francisco medical schools, which strengthens educational opportunities available to SJV Prime students and connects them to broader networks of medical professionals. It is an innovative medical education pathway that allows students to complete four years of an undergraduate degree followed by four years of medical school, with a focus on producing healthcare providers who are committed to serving the underserved communities of the San Joaquin Valley.

Being one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system, UC Merced is governed by a 26-member Board of Regents consisting of 18 officials appointed by the Governor of California, seven ex officio members, and a single student regent. The current president of the University of California is Michael Drake, and the administrative head of UC Merced is Juan Sánchez Muñoz. Academic policies are set by each of the school's Academic Senate, and a legislative body including all university faculty members. Nine vice chancellors manage academic affairs, research, diversity, marine sciences, student affairs, planning, external relations, business affairs, and health sciences and report directly to the chancellor.

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey was the first chancellor of the university and held the position from 1999 until she resigned on August 31, 2006. On September 21, 2006, the Regents named Roderic B. Park, a former interim chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, as the acting chancellor for UC Merced. Park remained acting chancellor until Sung-Mo (Steve) Kang, Dean of the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, took office in early March 2007. Kang held the position until 2011.

After a nationwide search, on May 24, 2011, the Regents of the University of California named Dorothy Leland, then president of Georgia College & State University, to be the university's newest chancellor. On May 13, 2019, Leland announced that she would be stepping down from her position, effective August 15, 2019. UC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Nathan Brostrom served as interim chancellor until July 2020. In July 2020, Juan Sánchez Muñoz, then president of University of Houston-Downtown, was appointed to the position of Chancellor. UCM's Chancellors are listed below:

• 1999–2006 Carol Tomlinson-Keasey
• 2006–2007 Roderic B. Park (Acting)
• 2007–2011 Sung Mo Kang
• 2011–2019 Dorothy Leland
• 2019–2020 Nathan Brostrom (Acting)
• 2020–Present Juan Sánchez Muñoz

UC Merced gets funding from a variety of federal, state, and private sources. With the exception of some government contracts, public support is apportioned to UC Merced and the other campuses of the University of California system through the UC Office of the President and accounts for a large percentage of the university's total revenues.

UC Merced has three schools offering 27 undergraduate majors and 25 minors:

• School of Engineering
• School of Natural Sciences
• School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts

In 2011, the campus was granted accreditation by WASC. In 2014, the School of Engineering received an ABET accreditation for the Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering programs.

The university is also home to the CCBM Summer Internship Program, an undergraduate research fellowship for non-UC Merced students sponsored by the NSF CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines. The campus takes advantage of the surrounding environment by investigating issues relating to environmental systems of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada, and of its youth by having programs in genetic research conducted in state-of-the-art research labs. It also benefits from proximity to Silicon Valley and other major universities. Research in fields like language acquisition and cultural issues is facilitated by the highly diverse ethnic makeup of the Central Valley. UC Merced operates on a semester system rather than the quarter system for its academic term. The Berkeley campus is the only other UC campus on a semester system.

Exclusive to UC Merced, The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) PRIME+ program, is an academic program that combines four years of undergraduate work with four years of medical school. The program offers students a diverse range of academic majors, also offered to the other students at the university, designed to prepare them for healthcare and medical sciences. Students in the undergraduate portion of their education can choose from specialized tracks that align with their academic interests and career goals that include four main areas: biological sciences, bioengineering, chemistry, or public health. The program's curriculum is structured to provide a solid foundation for both undergraduate studies and future professional education in medicine at the medical school. For students entering the medical school portion of their education, the curriculum is designed to build on their undergraduate studies while offering specialized training to address the unique healthcare challenges of the Central Valley of California. The medical school portion emphasizes not only advanced medical knowledge but also the development of skills necessary for providing care in underserved and rural communities, particularly in the central valley. These courses address the unique healthcare needs of the Central Valley's residents, including agricultural workers, immigrant populations, and low-income families. Students in the program study the challenges faced by rural healthcare providers, such as workforce shortages, limited healthcare access, and the higher prevalence of certain diseases in agricultural communities as well as preventative care for these issues.

UC Merced was tied for 42nd "Top Public School" and tied for 97th in the 2022 rankings of "Best National Universities" in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report. Also in the same rankings, it was ranked 5th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility", 171st in "Best Value Schools", and tied for 123th in "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs" at schools whose highest degree is a doctorate.

First-Time Freshman Profile

	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Applicants	27,794	25,924	25,368	25,121	22,574	20,888	18,620
Admits	24,070	21,982	18,263	16,624	15,619	15,492	11,288
Admit rate	86.6%	84.8%	72.0 %	66.2%	69.2%	74.2%	60.6%
Enrolled	2,411	1,951	2,105	2,217	2,293	2,049	1,803
SAT mid-50% range*	1140-1390	950 - 1140	990–1180	1000–1190	NA	860–1070	900–1120
ACT mid-50% range	23 - 32	17 - 22	17–22	18–24	18–23	18–23	19–24
Grade Point Avg (GPA)	3.51	3.55	3.58	3.59	3.55	3.51	3.56
* SAT out of 1600

UC Merced received 25,368 undergraduate applications for admission for the Fall 2019 incoming freshman class; 18,263 were admitted (72.0%).

Undergraduate enrollment in Fall 2019 was 51.7% women, 47.5% men and 0.8% unknown; approximately 99% were from California.

In 2021 UC Merced received a record-breaking number of applications totaling 30,105 freshman and transfer applications.

The graduate school application pool in 2022 consisted of 40% women and 23% minority students.

The SJV Prime program is an initiative designed for students from the San Joaquin Valley, separate from the regular UC Merced application. Admission to the program is requires candidates to demonstrate exceptional academic performance, a strong record of extracurricular involvement, and a clear commitment to pursuing advanced education. To be eligible, applicants must meet several criteria. The application process involves completing an online application, where students submit academic transcripts, standardized test scores, and their personal statement for the UC system. Additionally, applicants are required to fill out a supplemental application for the SJV Prime program by submitting letters of recommendation from teachers or mentors who can attest to their academic abilities, leadership potential, and commitment to learning. Finally, applicants must submit an additional personal statement or essay outlining their academic goals, career aspirations, and reasons for applying to the SJV Prime Program.

• Health Sciences Research Institute (HSRI)
• Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI)
• University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar)
• NSF CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines (CCBM)
• Merced nAnomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing (MACES)
• Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center (NCPC)

In 2007, UC Merced researchers obtained nearly $7 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. Grant funding for research has reached over $168.9 million in 2013.

The campus is bounded by Lake Yosemite on one side. Two irrigation canals run through the campus. The campus master plan was developed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, its initial infrastructure by Arup, and its first buildings were designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Thomas Hacker and Associates, and EHDD Architecture. The library and central power plant have been classified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold structures in terms of their high energy efficiency and low environmental impact. The campus is located about seven miles (11 km) north of downtown Merced in the middle of a cattle ranch.

Rather than build on 40 acres (16 ha) of protected land east of Lake Yosemite, where endangered fairy shrimp hatch in vernal pools, the school has built on a 230-acre (93 ha) parcel of grazing land south of campus, under a revised layout. The revised plan covers a total of 810 acres (330 ha) rather than the original 910 acres (370 ha) proposed in 2000. The new design was expected to impact a total of 81 acres (33 ha) of native wetlands in the region compared to the 121 acres (49 ha) forecast in the 2000 footprint.

The Science and Engineering Building 2 opened in 2014. The Classroom and Office Building 2 opened in 2016.

The library was the first building to open on campus. During the Fall 2005 semester, while construction of other buildings was still underway, all academic courses were conducted in the library. Its official motto is "Not what other research libraries are, what they will be."

The library contains more electronic holdings than print holdings, consisting of about 70,000 online journals and 3.965 million electronic books (including 3.15 million HathiTrust full-text books), compared to 102,000 print books. It provides access to 937 databases.

Kolligian is a Green library and has Gold LEED certification.

The UC Merced athletic teams are called the Golden Bobcats. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the California Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) since the 2011–12 academic year.

UC Merced competes in nine intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, volleyball and water polo.

In 2006, the university opened its gymnasium. The Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center features an "NCAA-sized basketball court, workout facilities, room for performances, wellness and fitness education and the Rajender Reddy Student Health Center".

Undergraduate demographics as of Fall 2023

Race and ethnicity	Total
Hispanic	51%	51
Asian	21%	21
White	10%	10
Foreign national	7%	7
Black	5%	5
Other	4%	4
Pacific Islander	0%
Economic diversity
Low-income	65%	65
Affluent	35%	35

Approximately 2,100 students currently live on campus in the Valley and Sierra Terraces and the Summits, which includes Tenaya and Cathedral Halls, 4.2 miles (6.8 km) away from the city of Merced. The most recent addition is Half Dome Hall which completed the UC Merced's first residential square. Many students choose to live in new housing subdivisions off campus.

The university's Campus Activities Board (CAB) organizes campus-wide activities such as concerts, movies, and dances.

Student publications include the newspaper The Prodigy, Bobcat Radio, The Undergraduate Research Journal, The Undergraduate Historical Journal, and literary journals The Kumquat and Imagination Dead Imagine. The Vernal Pool is a student publication for writing and visual art.

The university operates its own public transportation system, CatTracks. The system has several routes serving off-campus housing developments and locations in central Merced, about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from campus.

Associated Students of the University of California Merced (ASUCM) is the student government that represents the undergraduate students on campus. ASUCM funds student clubs and organizations including a campus visit from Karl Rove in 2010. The organization's Campus Activities Board brings outside talent to campus including comedians and musical acts.

The UC Merced Alumni Association (UCMAA) consists of more than 16,000 living members.

As stated by the LA Times in 2016, "Although most UC Merced alumni are still in their 20s, 11% of them contributed to their alma mater — outstripping the giving rate of all other UC campuses except UC Santa Barbara (16%) and UC Berkeley (12%). UCLA's rate was 8%, and UC Riverside, the most comparable campus, was 4%."

• Official website
• Official athletics website
• 2009 University Commencement Speaker Michelle Obama