California Master Plan for Higher Education

The California Master Plan for Higher Education of 1960 established a framework for California's public postsecondary education system at a time when state officials anticipated a large increase in university enrollment as the baby boom generation came of age. The plan sought to make higher education available regardless of economic means while differentiating the functions of the University of California (UC), the state colleges that were later reorganized as the California State University (CSU), and the junior colleges that were later organized into the California Community Colleges (CCC) system. By assigning distinct missions to each segment, the plan sought to avoid duplication of programs, reduce costs, and coordinate the growth of higher education in the state.

The plan was developed by a team appointed by the Regents of the University of California and the California State Board of Education under GovernorPat Brown, with UC president Clark Kerr playing a leading role. The statutory framework implementing the plan was enacted as the Donahoe Higher Education Act, named for Assemblywoman Dorothy Donahoe, one of the plan's foremost advocates, and signed into law by Brown on April 27, 1960.