UC to Redirect National Merit Funds
The six UC campuses that currently provide funding for National Merit Scholarships will redirect that funding to other merit-based scholarships beginning with the class entering in fall 2006.
The decision affects only National Merit Scholarships funded directly by the University; scholarships funded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation or by corporate sponsors will not be affected. In addition, UC will continue to honor all National Merit Scholarships awarded to date, including those awarded to students entering the University in fall 2005.
The affected UC campuses are Davis, Irvine, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and UCLA. Berkeley, Merced and Riverside already do not participate in the National Merit Scholarship Program.
In 2004-05, approximately 600 of UC’s 158,000 undergraduates received National Merit Scholarships funded by the University, totaling approximately $735,000.
The decision was reached collectively by the chancellors of the UC campuses following a recommendation by the Academic Council, the executive body of the UC faculty. The chancellors determined that UC should continue to reward and recognize academic merit, but that the specific definition of merit employed by the National Merit Scholarship Program is inconsistent with UC’s undergraduate admissions policies.
In particular, the chancellors agreed with the Academic Council’s concern that using the PSAT exam alone to eliminate the vast majority of test takers from National Merit Scholarship consideration is inconsistent with the principles that standardized tests should be used in conjunction with other factors in measuring merit and that major decisions should not be made on the basis of small differences in test scores.
As a result, the six campuses currently doing so will no longer use University resources to fund National Merit Scholarships, shifting those resources to fund other merit-based scholarships such as the UC Regents Scholarship Program and the campus-based Chancellor’s Scholarship Programs.
“We honor and respect academic achievement, and we are very proud that many National Merit Scholars apply to the University of California and are successful here,” said M.R.C. Greenwood, UC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “This decision of the chancellors is not meant to diminish those students or their accomplishments in any way.” None of UC’s public or private comparison institutions currently sponsors National Merit Scholarships.
The Academic Council’s resolution on the issue is available here.
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