University of California, Davis
public university in the Davis, California area; part of the University of California system
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university in the Davis, California area, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institution was first founded as an agricultural branch of the system in 1905 and became the sixth campus of the University of California in 1959.
Founded as a primarily agricultural campus, the university has expanded over the past century to include graduate and professional programs in medicine (which includes the UC Davis Medical Center), engineering, science, law, veterinary medicine, education, nursing, and business management, in addition to 90 research programs offered by UC Davis Graduate Studies. The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine is the largest veterinary school in the United States. UC Davis also offers certificates and courses, including online classes, for adults and non-traditional learners through its Division of Continuing and Professional Education.
It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is considered a "Public Ivy". The UC Davis Aggies athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I, primarily as members of the Mountain West Conference with additional sports in the Big Sky Conference (football only), the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, and the West Coast Conference. Athletes from UC Davis have won a total of 10 Olympic medals.
History
Agriculture and the land-grant university
In 1868, the University of California Davis was established as a land-grant university, and immediately founded a College of Agriculture as its first college as required by the Morrill Land-Grant Acts and the university's own Organic Act.
The public source identifies “University of California, Davis” as public university in the Davis, California area; part of the University of California system. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around University, California and Davis.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “University of California, Davis”, the useful work is to connect “public university in the Davis, California area; part of the University of California system” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q129421. VIAF identifies the subject as 124912246. The Library of Congress control number is n80126237. Authority coordinates are 38.540, -121.750. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1959 and 1868.
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This entry incorporates text from “University of California, Davis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.