UC San Diego was founded in 1960. Its main campus occupies about 1,200 acres in La Jolla, California, and it describes itself as a destination public university. Its academic structure includes eight undergraduate residential colleges and schools such as the Jacobs School of Engineering, Rady School of Management, School of Global Policy & Strategy, School of Medicine and Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing, along with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It is affiliated with UC San Diego Health.
The university’s About page reports total campus enrolment of 45,087 as of fall 2026 and 268,000 alumni. UC San Diego received $1.7 billion in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2025, according to its campus profile. Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla is the university’s chief executive officer.